Under the Stars
by youte
Summary: Oneshots - 10 - Minako had tried, she really had.
1. Kisses

**Kisses**

**By youte**

_**A few weeks p**__**ost Final Act**_

* * *

She certainly hadn't been expecting the first one. Like, at all.

Because, well, she had always thought that she'd be the one initiating it. Hey, she was Venus _and_ Minako Aino, it was not only arrogance talking, okay?

But life had taken this last year a surprising taste. And she loved it.

The situation had been simple enough, an usual day for them. Minako had come to the shrine one evening, to see Rei one last time before going on tour and leaving the city.

She had found Mars with her two crows, in the gardens. To know what their conversation had been about wouldn't really be interesting. Their fight wasn't that interesting either. At the time, it happened often. What? They were _communicating_, okay?

Anyway, that wasn't the point. The point was, Minako really had not been expecting that first kiss.

* * *

Once calmed down, Minako sighed and fingered the little key ring hidden in her pocket. It was a Nako Nako dressed in red with a little hat, Venus' symbol on its forehead and Mars' one on its heart. After an hesitation, she held it out to Rei with a teasing smile (falsely confident), and shoved it in the girl's hand when she saw her frowning.

"Here. It's for you."

"Why do you give me this blue thing?"

"Why do you dislike Nako Nako? Everybody loves him!"

"Everybody who isn't more than twelve, maybe," Rei answered back while she examined the offering.

"Hey, it's how old I was when I created him. Isn't he cute?"

"A blue unicorn?"

"They existed on Venus," Minako confided, waiting for the inevitable admonition.

That didn't come. Instead of that, she found Rei gazing at her with a strange little smile and warmness in her eyes. It totally threw Minako off guard.

"So... you can thank me now."

"You wish!"

Minako couldn't help but laugh. Rei was really too adorable when she was annoyed. Her pout was cute, too. And her eyes…

Gorgeous.

She looked at Rei who was once again studying the toy, her thumb softly caressing the Mars' symbol. Minako wondered if the other girl understood the real meaning of this Nako Nako, who it represented and why it had this sign over its heart. And she found that at the end she didn't really care.

As long as Rei kept projecting so delicious feelings toward her.

"It's just a gift to thank you. I wanted to offer you a one-week trip to Europe, but at the last minute I thought that you wouldn't easily accept it."

The miko rolled her eyes, but Minako saw the warm gleam in them. She grinned.

"Well, I have to go now. We leave early tomorrow morning."

"Be careful. Fans can be a little crazy, I've heard."

"Oh, are you worried about me, Mars Reiko?"

"Never," Rei proclaimed. "But my ears might not take Usagi's cries and screams."

Minako turned her gaze away, hiding her smile. They both knew what their words really meant. They just weren't ready yet to acknowledge it. The idol hesitated, not in a hurry to leave, but not finding the courage to finally do what she had been dreaming of doing for weeks. She sighed and smiled.

"Well, see you later!" Minako finally said, waving.

She began to turn around, her smile fading, when a hand on her wrist stopped her. Surprised, she turned to Rei and froze when she saw the intensity in her eyes, the fire in her gaze, and her aura shining in a way it never did before.

She held her breath, suddenly frankly nervous, and couldn't move when the other girl's lips found her own, tenderly. The kiss was wonderful, soft, chaste, all sparks and magic and innocence.

This first kiss tasted like hope and dried tears, like sunshine and strength.

To Minako, it tasted like life.

The girl was mortified to feel herself blushing. Rei looked at her with her ever sincere eyes, apparently proud of herself. She was clearly a little bit embarrassed but hid it behind a tiny shy and charming smile.

"You're cute when you're blushing," Rei teased with the softest voice.

It didn't help Minako's sudden bout of embarassment.

"Sh - shut up."

The second kiss didn't surprise Minako. It was just after the first, both of them initiated it, and it was longer, bolder, slightly clumsy but absolutely unforgettable.

This time, Minako was able to move (to her relief). She put an arm around Rei's waist, her other hand finding her neck, and basked in the joy and excitation that invaded her body and mind, even the tenseness, even the faint embarrassment that stayed with her. She loved every second of it, every delicious second during which she could hold Rei in her arms, against her body, play with her soft hair, caress her cheek and above it all kiss her.

That kiss tasted more like promises and future, and surely Sailor Venus could identify it.

For it tasted like love.

When they separated, they looked at each other, neither knowing what to say or what to do, both immensely relieved of not being alone in their hesitation. They softly said goodbye to the other, and Minako left for her hotel, her boucing step betraying her glee.

When she arrived at her room at the hotel, she kicked her expensive shoes off, left them there, threw her jacket toward the armchair (missed it but didn't care), and went to sit down on the sofa, her handbag forgotten in her hand.

Artemis, who was sitting on the armchair, was watching her curiously. She didn't see him. In fact, all she was seeing was Rei, and all she was feeling was her lips upon her own. The desire to do it again was overwhelming, and she suddenly giggled, delighted.

She had the right to act like a sixteen-year-old sometimes, after all. Especially when she was this happy.

"Mina?"

She caressed her lips with the tip of her fingers and didn't let herself worrying about the whys, the hows, the future or the significations. She smiled softly and quietly thanked life.

"Minako?"

And it was _Rei_. Rei and her, it had never been simple but it worked, it was intense and warm and always full of surprises. Minako hoped it would always be that way.

"Minako?"

"She kissed me," she whispered, feeling like she was in a dream.

"Huh?"

"She kissed me."

"Rei?"

She finally looked at him, and was almost surprised to see him here, watching her, amused. But she smiled, that time a little sheepishly.

"Yes. Why? Does it surprise you?"

"That you kissed each other, certainly not. I'm not blind, I knew you were in love with her well before you did."

"Hey!"

"What? You're a little slow, you know?"

"I… I'm not slow. And I'm not –"

"In love ? If you think you can hide something like that to me, you're sadly mistaken!"

"I know, I know. I love you too, Artemis," she teased.

"But the fact that _she_ was the one to kiss you first, _that_ astonishes me."

"Huh, well..."

"What by Mau were you waiting for, hmm, _Venus_?"

She rolled her eyes, her embarrassment and her annoyance at the fact clearly visible. She didn't know what she had been waiting for, but she certainly knew it had been worth it.

"Stop commenting my private life, furball. And I'll let you know that I kissed her, too. The second time. Well, we kissed each other but... I'll do it next time!"

He laughed, got up and stretched.

"And you, you should stop smiling like that," he teased with affection, "or the entire country will understand."

"I am not smiling!"

"Right, princess."

And Minako couldn't help the big happy smile that shined beneath her pathetic serious mask, her eyes, for the first time in years, alighted with joy.

For it was Rei. And for it was her.


	2. Children of light

**Children of light**

_**By youte**_

Risa Hino hated it.

Having to see her doctor a Saturday afternoon wasn't what angered her the most. Having to bring her four-year-old daughter with her was far more unpleasing. Of course, like always, Takashi was working, and it wasn't really the nanny's fault that she happened to be sick that day.

As she had to wait for her tests results, Risa decided to bring Rei to the cafeteria, in hope that the quiet little girl would feel more at ease there. The clinic intimidated her in such a way that the otherwise curious and smiling child hadn't said one word since they arrived there. Now the girl was clinging to her mother, her face hidden beneath Risa's chin.

Rei was her mother's pride. She was a really cute child, bright, well behaved, joyful. She loved to play and discover new things. That she could react in that way toward a new place could have surprised Risa, but it wasn't the case, for the woman had always known that her special baby wasn't like other little girls. Rei had a weird way to look at the world and to understand it. As if what she was seeing was different from what others did. There was something magic in her eyes, in her presence, and Risa could only hope that nobody would notice her strange aura.

"There, sweetie. We'll be fine here," she said softly in her child's ear.

Risa bought a coffee for herself and a piece of cake for Rei and went to sit in the dining room. There wasn't a lot of people there at that moment. She smiled at her child.

"If you keep frowning like that, you'll end up stuck with that face. And you won't have your cake."

Rei stared at her with that abominably cute worried look that made her look so much like her father, then she studied the piece of cake on the table.

"Can have?"

"Can you have it? Of course."

The little child smiled, caught the cake with her chubby hands to pull it to her and began to eat it slowly. She looked at the room in doing so, cautiously, and after a while she seemed to be more at ease and talked a little more, asking questions about the clinic. Once she had finished to eat it, she stood up and went to Risa. The woman smiled and took a napkin to wash her daughter's face.

"You have cake all over you, baby."

Not appreciating the treatment, Rei tried to escape her mother's hands with a frown.

"Mama! Leave me! Ew!"

Risa laughed and stopped.

"Do you want your toys?"

"No. Thanks. Go home?"

"In a little while, I promise."

"To play? You and me?" Rei asked, her big eyes shining with hope.

Risa couldn't say no to her at that moment.

"Yes, if you want."

Her baby offered her a big smile, her eyes alighted with glee for the first time that day. Then she turned around to look at the other people and the happenings of the cafeteria. Risa drank her coffee in silence, her fingers playing with her daughter's hair.

A couple came to settle at the table nearby. They were younger than Risa, and the man held against his chest a tiny girl that looked a tad younger than Rei. He sat down, visibly worried, the girl with the fragile air on his knees. His wife settle down beside him with their cups. She leaned toward them and caressed her child's dark hair with tenderness.

"You heard the doctor. Calm down, she's fine," she said softly to her husband. "It's just clumsiness. She takes after you."

Her teasing went in deaf ears. He kept rocking the girl and looking at her angelic face with somber eyes.

"I don't know. I find it strange. She's too old to fall down like that. And only at times…"

The young woman drank her coffee to keep from having to answer, and Risa understood that she too was worried but that she didn't want to show it. Their child opened her eyes finally, yawned, and immediately began to fidget.

"Daddy, down," she asked softly, rubbing her eyes.

The man smiled and shook his head.

"And the please, Mina?"

"Down, please!"

"Are you better?"

"Daddy!"

The mother smiled.

"Let her down. She can't hold still. It's a miracle that she was that calm during the tests."

He let her daughter leave his arms carefully. But the girl seemed well, so he let her go and sighed.

The child looked full of energy. She stared with wonder at all the things her eyes could see, sheer curiosity and wonder on her face. She giggled when she looked at two old men, like she could see something hidden to them all, she clapped when her eyes fell upon a boy without hair and his nurse, waved at him and laughed when he waved back with a smile. Then she tried to go to the other side of the room, where a lady was crying discreetly, a little frown on her cute innocent face.

"No, stay here," the mother asked, catching the child at the last second.

The girl looked at her before gazing back at the distraught woman.

"But…"

"You can't go to her. You don't know her."

"But she's all sad, mommy."

"I know. I know, but you can't."

"Why?"

"Because..." The mother struggled as her young child waited for her answer. "Because you can't help everyone."

The little girl looked ready to argue but finally kept silence. She stared a moment at a cleaning lady, maybe amused by her gesture. But her attention went again to the crying woman, and she began to run to her but her mom, without looking like it, must have had an eye on her for she caught her quickly by the wrist and frowned down at her.

"Minako, no."

The girl looked at her, annoyed, but an angelic smile suddenly graced her feature. Her mother wasn't impressed.

"Minako, you're staying here."

Risa smiled. That child certainly wasn't as calm as her Rei, that was for sure. She seemed to radiate with light and energy. Her puny look was deceiving, but she seemed like an adorable child… a tiring one, but adorable nevertheless. Her parents kept an eye on her at all time, even now that the girl was calmly looking at… Rei.

"Are you hungry, Mina?"

"No."

Rei was watching the little girl too, her eyes full of surprise and wonder, with that carefulness that she always felt for strangers. They looked at each other for a long while, fascinated by the other. The eyes of the other girl were studying Rei, gently, avidly.

The couple saw it too. They smiled at Risa, puzzled by the girls' behavior. The woman took Minako in her arms and her daughter kept looking at Rei. And suddenly, a big and happy grin appeared on her luminous face, and she laughed gleefully.

Risa smiled, too, for the emotions of this child were highly contagious. She seemed to be made of light, and that soft and warm gleam in her eyes was a little like what Risa could sometimes see in her daughter. Rei looked at the girl with confusion, a soft frown on her face, a little smile on her lips.

Rei had never reacted like that because of another child before now.

"Mrs Hino? Doctor Miyaki is waiting."

Risa nodded and stood up before taking Rei in her arms. She said quietly goodbye to the couple and smiled, amused to see their child wiggling in her mother's arms to follow them.

"No, Minako, you stay here."

"But, mommy!"

Risa left the cafeteria, the door closing behind her. She felt Rei softly sigh against her throat.

"You liked that little girl, Rei?"

"Did you see, mama?" she whispered. "She was shining."

* * *

In the cafeteria, Mrs Aino had successfully kept her daughter in her arms. She opened her mouth to say something to her, but Minako spoke first.

"Her sun was all warm," she said softly. "All warm, and full of light and magic."

She giggled, then sighed and rested her head on her mom, letting her rock her.

"You liked her?"

"Yes."

But Minako wouldn't see that girl again in years, and by then both of them would have forgotten that first encounter.

For ever.


	3. Lies

**Lies**

**By youte**

_**Post act 26**_

They were in a nameless garden, near the Hikawa Shrine, on a bench. It was late in the afternoon, the sun was gold and blood, intense and pale.

"You're not the princess."

"Obviously," Minako smiled.

She tilted her head toward the sky, and looked at the brown leaves of the ancient tree behind them. The leaves danced and swayed with a soft sound, their movement nearly invisible for the pedestrians but life changing for the poor little things.

Minako felt Mars' eyes on her.

"You lied."

"Obviously."

Rei sighed.

"You're our leader. And don't tell me it's obvious."

And Minako smiled, but certainly not because something was funny. Her hands in her pockets were trembling. She was tired. Fortunately, one of her dancers taught her how to put make up correctly to hide every trace of fatigue. And in her highly complicated life, it was a very useful lesson. Her tired features and her paleness weren't easily noticed thanks to it.

Make up was just another form of lie.

But it could not hide her constant loss of weight, slow but steady, that journalists and fans commented more and more. Rumors on her health would appear sooner or later.

She didn't have much time left. A few weeks, maybe. And she had the impression that she hadn't progressed in this war. The pressure was becoming more intense, she couldn't fail, too many things were at stake, too many things depended on their success. On them. On her.

She could not fail, damn it. Not again.

But sometimes, she felt so old, so _exhausted_…

So much to do, so little time.

That was her life story.

A life without a future, one way or another.

"Why train me, if you are the one who is supposed to lead ?" a frustrated Rei asked.

Minako didn't move. Trees and leaves truly were fascinating.

"I was right, wasn't I ? You have become stronger, faster, more thoughtful. The soldier in you has awaken." She sighed. "And if only you could remember, you'd know that you're my second in command. Even if here we don't have armies to lead."

"Your second in command?"

"Hmm. Which means that in my absence, or if I can't lead for a reason or another, you are the one that will have to give orders."

There was silence.

For a while.

Minako lived in a world of light, of sounds, of noises, of life. A lot of it was superficial, and she basked in it, in the lies. She never was left alone, and she loved it. The only calm moments happened when she was on a white hospital bed, when she was all alone in her room at the hotel, or at night when she had to run on the city rooftops to fight crime and protect this planet. Sickness. Loneliness. War. There was silence then. Silence brought truth, silence _was_ truth.

Silence was strange for her.

But with Rei, it seemed almost obvious, natural, comforting.

_Almost._

"Are you cold ?" the soft voice of Mars asked.

Minako stayed still. The pale sunlight was playing with the soft red colors of the leaves, big and small, all of them, in a flamboyant show. It was magical.

"No."

"… You're shaking."

"I am fine," she whispered.

A lonely leaf fell from the tree, it swayed in the soft wind without controlling anything, it could not stop nor it could fight its fall. And finally it met the ground, alone and fragile.

_Dead._

"I am always fine."

And always a liar.


	4. Fatality

**Fatality**

**_By youte_**

_**The girls are 18.**_

* * *

It was late at night. But Rei Hino couldn't sleep.

A sigh escaped her lips. Reading, or rather trying to read, didn't help her to forget all that was on her mind, far from it. Everything seemed so complicated lately, and the young woman didn't know how to end the endless circle of exhaustion and fear and confusion. She was ready to throw her book against the wall when suddenly she felt a presence behind her. She jumped and her manga fell from her hands, her eyes on the lone figure in front of her.

"How…?" A careless gesture toward her screen doors was her only answer. "It was locked."

"It was," Minako Aino confirmed with a little smile and a shrug.

"You…? Never mind."

"One of the things I learned when I was Sailor V."

"You could have knocked!"

A cute laugh and a sheepish smile softened Rei too easily.

"Sorry, but it wouldn't have been nearly as fun, Reiko. How are you?"

"I am good. And you?"

"Good…"

"What?"

"It's just… you don't look really good."

"Geez, thanks a lot."

Minako didn't look sorry at all. She didn't move, and kept her dark eyes on Rei.

"What happened?"

"What? During your time in Europe?"

"No. What happened that worries you so much?"

"It's nothing."

"Mars!"

There was a sad spark in her honey eyes, and Rei understood that she was hurting her in keeping her secret. It was certainly not what she wanted. She wished… to protect her. Yet she knew that Minako had faced a lot more terrible things than her in her life. And she was Venus, powers or not, her leader. Her best friend.

If their roles in this had been reversed…

But she couldn't tell the truth to Minako. She just couldn't, not till she was sure, not till she knew, till she understood that vision completely. She didn't want the other girl to be in the same state of confusion, fear and anxiousness as her.

"I had visions. They were difficult. And upsetting. It happens. I'm fine."

"Visions?"

Minako's voice was too fragile. Rei didn't like it.

"Yeah. It's fine."

"Is it because of these visions that you are so exhausted these days?"

"No. Well, yes. I said it before, I have a lot on my mind. Where's Artemis? It's the third time I see you without him."

"We are not always together, you know."

"Really? Wow."

"Hey! He's a lot with Luna since we came back."

She winked, and Rei laughed before sitting down on her futon, inviting the other girl to do the same.

"How was your week?"

"Oh, great. Interviews, and I did that commercial. I spent time with my mom too."

"How is she?"

"Fine, thanks," Minako smiled. "We fought. And then we went shopping. And we came back home to quarrel again. She's an evil – what?"

"Your relationship with your mom is really strange," Rei softly said. "It really don't understand it sometimes. It seems all you do is fighting."

"It's not all we do," Minako replied, amused by Rei's reaction. "We went shopping!"

"Ah, yes. Of course."

"And it's not my fault she's an evil witch," the idol added, mumbling. "One day you'll meet her, and you'll see."

Rei nodded and laid down on her back, and Minako did the same beside her. Rei stopped breathing when her arm touched Minako's, when the idol's scent invaded her senses, but she soon found out that she was too tired to be anxious.

"Reiko?"

"Mmh?"

"Would you tell me if you had troubles?"

"What kind?"

"I don't know."

"I can't answer that. Would you?"

"… I see."

Minako was looking at her with eyes full of sadness and anxiety, and the miko didn't have to be empathic to know why the idol was so uncharacteristically open. She wanted to understand why Rei was so upset, because she wanted to help her. And it really warmed Rei's heart and soul, but she knew that she couldn't tell Minako that secret. Not now, at least.

"Could we just… talk? Forget about visions and all these things and talk?" she asked finally, not liking how her voice broke at the end.

Silence. And suddenly, Minako took her bag with renewed energy.

"Ok!" she exclaimed, just before brandishing a soft toy. "Here! For you."

Cautiously, knowing Minako's love for jokes, Rei took the Nako Nako. It was without hair and hat, without shoes. It had a white jacket, and soothing orange patterns were traced on the garment.

"Why are you giving me this?"

"He won't eat you, you know."

"He's different from the others, isn't he? He seems… less…" Rei frowned. "Isn't he rounder?"

Minako smiled with glee, delighted that Rei had seen it.

"He is! I drew him. It's a baby Nako. Wait." She took the toy and put something on it before giving it back to Rei. "Here. Tada!"

"A diaper?"

"The jacket can be removed too. He is soft, cute, easy to wash up and adapted to little kiddies. Created especially for them. He has been validated, he's going to be in the toyshops this Christmas."

"Do I look like a baby?"

"Sometimes," Minako teased.

Rei found the toy cute enough, but she didn't want to say so to her friend. She nonetheless put it on her belly, her fingers playing with it.

"It doesn't tell me why you're giving it to me."

"Artemis doesn't like soft toys. He feels threatened by them."

Rei looked at Minako to see her eyes alighted with laughter. She pushed her playfully and couldn't help but chuckle.

"Idiot."

"I wanted to give it to you," Minako explained, suddenly more serious. "When… when I was a child, my mom would come to the hospital and bring me little soft toys. Every time they were different. She began that tradition during my first chemo. I have dozens of these cute little things at home," said Minako with a smile. She was looking at the baby Nako, clouds of memories in her eyes. "Which is not really positive, because it shows how often I was hospitalized. But it was a constant. A good constant, even when I grew up, because it made me smile and it was... well, reassuring."

A softer smile appeared on Rei's face. Minako had offered her the toy to distract her and console her, because it was the only thing she could do for her. It was the nicest and cutest thing somebody had done for Rei in years.

That girl could be frustrating and way to bossy, but she certainly was surprising and adorable.

Rei tenderly kissed Minako's cheek and smiled.

"Thanks."

While the idol looked astonished by her gesture, her face reddening a little, Rei played with Baby Nako, frowned and hesitated.

"You… never mentioned any chemotherapy before."

Minako tensed, and shrugged.

"To stop the cancer from expanding and the tumor from getting bigger, my neurologist advocated it. I had chemo when I was seven, and then I began radiotherapy again when I was nine. Even if the tumor was dangerous I had a lighter treatment after that. You know the rest of the story." She had a poor smile. "It's fortunate that I could cease that type of treatments because I wouldn't have become an idol if I had stayed that weak and thin, hairless and pale. Chemo really is hell, and radiotherapy is a big bother. I... It could begin again, one day, if... it gets worse again."

Rei smiled, even if she didn't feel like it. But she felt that she had to honor Minako's efforts to minimize the impact of her story. The miko never knew that her friend had already been this sick at such a young age. She couldn't be sadder and at the same time more admirative of the other girl than at that moment. And that was exactly because of that type of things that she just couldn't stay away from Minako Aino.

She closed her eyes, keeping her tears behind her eyelids. Surely Minako felt a lot of things coming from her, and Rei was worried about what emotions exactly she could read at that moment. She didn't know how to stop it, how to control herself when she was this tired and lost.

What was she supposed to do? Why did she have this damned vision?

She felt Minako's warm and soft hand in hers, her eyes on her face.

"Do you want me to tell you about my day?" Minako's clear voice asked suddenly. "Because it was insane! You wouldn't believe how arrogant that photographer was! I was…"

Minako talked for a long time. She held Rei's hand and talked, even when the other girl fell asleep, ten minutes later. She talked even when her words became hollow, she talked even when her thoughts drifted away from her story.

Finally, she fell silent, and looked at the sleeping Rei with tenderness and a love barely suppressed. Her closed eyelids, her lips, the hand in hers, the fingers on the toy, her expression tormented even in slumber. She softly caressed the soft locks and skin and sighed.

She so wanted to help her, like Rei had helped her in the past. But all she seemed to be capable of was feelings she shouldn't have for a girl who was a fellow soldier and her best friend, too much pride and stolen caresses in the dark.

She sat down, removed her jacket and took a blanket to put it on the sleeping girl. She couldn't help but kiss her forehead before laying down again beside her.

"I wish you would tell me, Rei," she whispered in the dark, taking the miko's hand in hers again. "I wish you would let me really comfort you." She sighed, and something in her voice broke. "I… I wish you…"

_Would trust me._

_Would tell me all that is on your mind, all of it._

I wish you would love me.

* * *

In her dream, in the reminiscences of her vision, Rei was older. It was raining, she was shaking, but this cold was nothing when compared to the one in her heart. On her knees on the damp grass, under the stars hiding behind dark clouds, she was quietly crying. Her tears were burning her, her skin, her soul. She was drowning in her sobs.

A part of her was already dead and cold and nothing would be able to save her. Her heart cried out for the other part of her soul, but no answer came. She felt like she was never going to see the world with the same eyes again.

For life had taken the most precious thing from her.

Her pale and trembling fingers went to touch the inscriptions engraved on the white wet stone. Two planet symbols, the one for Mars and the one for Venus. And beneath them, a name, and an epitaph.

* * *

_I wish you would love me._

She did.

_I wish you would love me._

She was confused.

_I wish you would love me._

She wanted to, but she was scared.

Their own future was haunting her.

_I wish…_

Sometimes wishing was just not enough.

For it was linked with fatality.

* * *

_Shion Hino Aino_

_A luminous little angel_

_A beloved daughter_


	5. Souvenirs

_**A little oneshot that is lighter and simpler than the others.**_

* * *

**Souvenirs**

_**By youte**_

It was a beautiful late afternoon.

Minako Aino wondered if Venus would appear soon in the darkening sky, and if it would be a sign of good things to come.

The girl just had an all clear from the hospital. A new one. She just loved to see her stern and cold neurologist smile, a thing she had discovered these past two years.

She had her career, a passably normal life, Artemis, her friends. And she was healthy.

And the life of an healthy person certainly was cool.

Only one thing pushed Minako Aino to keep her distance from all of it, emotionally and physically. And as ironically as it was for her, that thing was love.

The love she felt for one of her female friends.

The friend who took the time to come get her at the hospital after her school festival, and who was currently walking beside her, in her uniform and in silence.

"Hey, could I get an ice cream?" Minako asked lightly, letting her arm brush Rei's.

The other girl scowled.

"Get it yourself."

Minako smiled and huffed indignantly.

"That certainly isn't a way to treat an idol."

"You're not an idol."

"Excuse-me?" she exclaimed.

Rei looked at her calmly and shrugged.

"I am not a fan. What? You already know that."

A little vexed, Minako put her nose in the air and walked past Rei, toward a little street less crowded. She wasn't surprised to hear the miko behind her.

"Oh, come on! I didn't even recognize you when we met, Minako! Don't be silly."

Minako didn't know if she was really hurt or even sad. No, Rei hadn't recognized her. But it wasn't the fact that she hadn't known the singer in her that tugged at her heart. It was the fact that Mars still didn't remember Venus that killed her inside.

Rei groaned and took Minako's hand to stop her, her frustration clear in her eyes. She struggled to say something, like she sometimes did when Minako was embarrassing her or was getting too close.

"Stop being so proud."

"Look who's talking!"

Rei crossed her arms and frowned.

"Ok. Fine. Do what you want, I have homework to do."

Minako let her walk away, too proud to do anything, but then she remembered what a great day it was, and that she would leave for her Japan Tour two weeks later. After all, Minako was absent too often, and occasions to see her friends were too rare. She wanted to spend more time with Rei.

So despite her pride, she went after her.

"Wait. I was being childish."

Rei raised one eyebrow at her.

"What's incredible is that you recognize it."

"_Anyway_, I wanted to say… Well, I'm glad you came today."

"I wanted to know if you were alright."

Minako smiled.

"I've been fine these past two years, Reiko. I told you."

"Yeah, like I could believe you like that."

Ouch. But Minako knew when to accept responsibility.

She stayed silent, happy to just have the chance to feel Rei near her, to sometimes brush against her or smell her perfume. She sounded like a lovesick seventeen-year-old teenage girl or like one of her songs, and she almost sneered.

Pathetic.

But she _was_ a lovesick seventeen-year-old teenage girl and half of her songs and more were written while thinking of Venus and Mars or of Rei Hino.

Rei had turned right and was heading to a shop.

"What are you doing, Mars?"

"Didn't you say you wanted an ice cream?"

With a little hidden smile, Minako followed Rei and let her buy her the sweet. They went to a quiet park, almost deserted on this winter's evening, and sat down on a bench. The idol made sure to be as near as Rei as she could be, almost touching her.

"So," Minako began, feeling her ever present need to tease Rei resurface to break the silence, "you picked me up, you bought me ice cream, and what now?"

Rei looked at her, a little lost. Minako kept herself from squealing happily. Her Reiko could be so cute!

"What? We never planned any of our time together before."

"Well, picking me up, buying me food, it seems that this date is going really well."

"Why wouldn't it go – Wait! What?! What?! No!"

Minako couldn't hold back her laughter anymore, seeing the adorably panicking girl becoming redder than Mars' fuku.

She giggled a little more when she saw the exasperation in Rei's eyes.

"Sorry. Kidding," she said before pinching a red cheek. "Aren't you a little too much on the defensive to be innocent, Mars Reiko?"

"Stop it!"

Rei took Minako's hand in hers. Of course, Venus took the opportunity to intertwine their fingers. Her smile became softer as she admired the miko's beauty.

"What? I am a lucky girl, am I not? After all, a Catholic girl and a priestess, you're a universal fantasy!"

Rei was becoming redder with every word and certainly because of the tone Minako used. Of course the idol didn't stop, gleeful to see such a reaction.

"You have a goddess body," she falsely lightly commented, "gorgeous eyes, beautiful hair, and when you do smile, wow!"

She seemed to have broken Rei. The other girl was looking at her, mortified and quiet.

"What?" smiled Minako. "Like you didn't know it. Wait. Maybe you _are_ that innocent!"

"I am not!" protested Rei vividly. "And I could say the same thing about you! Like you weren't a fantasy for half of our generation!"

"Only half of it?" pouted Minako with a teasing smile, pushing her body onto Rei's side, her face millimeters from the other girl's. "Am I a fantasy to you, Mars Reiko?"

To Minako's deception, Rei didn't blush this time. She just looked in her eyes, frozen in place.

"I think you had too much sugar, Minako," she simply said, her voice even. "And stop calling me like that."

Minako didn't know if she felt more stunned, proud, or amused. So she just smiled, elated, even if she was disappointed that her flirting was stopped like that.

She grinned when she thought about how Rei would maybe react if Minako confessed that she had been in her dreams and fantasies for years and that her heart was beating furiously every time she knew that she would see her, hear her voice, feel her presence near her.

That her heart broke every time Rei avoided her eyes or ignored her not so hidden confessions and flirting.

She wondered for two seconds what it would be to kiss Rei then. To just tilt her head and brush her lips against Rei's soft ones. What it would be to be kissed and loved by this special young woman who didn't even realize how admirable she was – and admired, like was reminded Minako when two boys looked at her friend a little too closely while passing by them. She glared at them, and ironically, they didn't recognize her as they hurriedly left the park. Rei didn't even notice them. Unbelievable.

"So," Minako began, sitting straight, "when will you sing a song with me? Officially?"

"Never."

"That's mean."

"That's final."

"Are you scared of the public?"

"You should be scared of them liking me better than you."

"Like that was even a possibility! You're not that good, Reiko."

"Why are you calling me like that?"

The voice was curious, and strangely tensed. Minako couldn't help but be thrown in the sea of Venus' memories.

The princesses' encounter. Their training. The missions, the strategies, the complicity, the faith and trust, laughs and tears, blood and cries, hope and honor, jokes and wars, duty and obligations, and secret desperation, secret hate toward their own kingdoms, secret disgust for the egoistical princess they were on the Moon to protect.

And there were the feelings. These feelings that were born from years of companionship, of trust and of watching the other's back. These feelings of love that the Venusian's princess, the Senshi leader and the Guardian of Love and Light had no right to have for a friend, another royalty and another Senshi. A love that was forbidden by all royal courts and that she kept hidden by taking many lovers, a love that she hid behind teasing words and big smiles and sisterly friendship.

A love that had been unrequited, and Venus had been very aware of that fact.

Minako Aino hadn't meant to fall in love with Rei Hino, to repeat that pathetic story that could never be. She hadn't meant to betray her Senshi oaths. Rei Hino was Mars, but she was also so different from her... Minako didn't understand how she could fall this hard and fast for this girl that was but wasn't her past love. But along the way it happened, and she couldn't and wouldn't fight it.

The princess of Mars hadn't returned Venus' love. But sometimes, Minako thought that maybe, Rei did. It was something in her eyes, in her voice, in her gestures, in her anger when Minako was sick or when she worked too much, in her smile when she thought that the idol wasn't looking, in her light touches and in her warm aura.

Minako wasn't sure, but she was a very determined person. And she would hold onto that hope as long as her heart was going to beat for Rei.

"Minako? Minako?"

"Huh?"

"Are you with me?"

"Yes. Yes, sorry."

"You seem tired."

"No, I'm fine. What were you saying?"

Rei looked at her for a while, and then shrugged.

"Nothing."

Minako turned her head to look at the trees before them. She didn't really know why, but suddenly she didn't feel that happy anymore.

She felt old.

Old, and so very alone, never mind the thousands of fans, Shacho, Amachachi and her associates.

Alone in a world where almost everyone believed they knew her but where nobody really _saw_ her.

"Minako?"

"What?"

"I remember."

"What?"

"I remember," Rei repeated slowly, patiently.

And suddenly, Minako understood and felt like she was pushed in a pool of ice water, head and all.

She instinctively jumped to her feet, putting distance between Rei and her, afraid of her own actions.

"Remember?" she said, her voice so unlike her usual tone, too piercing, too rushed.

Rei stayed calm, looking at her with only the slightest trace of nervousness in her eyes. Minako felt that the roles had been cruelly reversed.

"Yes."

That didn't really mean anything! Minako shifted on her foot, unnerved. What did Rei really remember? The other Mars? Her planet? Her powers? The other Senshi? Venus? Their friendship and all that the four of them shared then? Serenity? The Moon palace? Their deaths? Their oaths? The taste of the food or the color of the Martian's sky? What?!

Did she… did she remember _that_?

Minako frowned at that thought. It would be disastrous to her 'seduce Rei' plan.

If Rei remembered that passionate and full kiss that Venus had decided to give Mars just before the last fight on the Moon, a few hours only before their gory deaths…

Who could blame Venus, though? She had been twenty-six, really young for a Venusian, she had seen too much and done too much, she loved a woman who had decided to never love so she could better dedicated herself to her faith and mission, and she knew in her heart that she had fought all these years for nothing, that she couldn't protect her people and that she was going to die that day, along with all that she knew, her Senshi and her love.

Minako was pretty sure that Mars hadn't been angry at Venus for her bold gesture, because unlike Sailor Venus, the idol believed that the Senshi of Fire had known her leader's feelings for her for a while even if she hadn't loved her in that way.

But Rei…

"What exactly do you remember?" Minako asked, not one to keep musing over things she could have a direct answer to.

"Not all of it. Only bits and pieces."

"Since when?"

"I've been having dreams and visions for a few weeks."

"Oh. What kind of things do you recall?"

Rei stood up and reflected a little.

"Only moments of Mars' life at her home and at the palace. I remember Venus, Jupiter and Mercury. But… not Serenity. And not Artemis or Luna."

"We rarely had to do with them," Minako explained automatically. "You remember me?"

"I remember Venus was as arrogant and pig headed as you are."

Minako smiled.

"But that is what charms all these suitors."

"If you say so."

Minako's phone made itself known, and the girl looked at it with a grimace.

"It's getting late. I have to go back to my hotel."

"Ok. I have to go back to the shrine."

They walked toward the street and Minako called a taxi. Just before getting in the car, she smiled at Rei.

"Thank you for today. I should put on my website how Rei Hino is such a thoughtful friend and a sweetheart. I'm sure the girls at the Academy would swallow their tongues reading this."

"Don't you dare!"

Minako giggled and got in the car.

"See you tomorrow at Makoto's."

Rei rolled her eyes and just before the car took off, Minako decided to act upon her feelings and take that turn in her life that she had been dreaming about for two years.

Because Rei was not Mars, and in the end Minako was not Venus. Their life would be different than theirs.

Minako hoped that maledictions and destinies wouldn't get in the way, and she opened the door again, get out of the car and lightly kissed a reddening Rei on the mouth.

"It's to help you remember," she softly said to the beautiful miko, hiding her own nervousness.

She winked and got back in the car, closing the door with a happy smile and the heart full of joy, excitation and fear. She was surprised when Rei leaned over the open window.

"I already remembered that."

Minako opened her mouth, stunned, but the taxi pulled away and she kept her words in her chest.

For a second or two, she worried about the following day, but then she recalled the way Reiko's eyes had brighten with something that wasn't disgust or sadness or awkwardness after the kiss, she remembered her soft and warm lips on hers, and the mixture of hesitancy, elation and embarrassment in her grave voice. So Minako just smiled and looked at the sky.

The night was going to be beautiful.

Venus was already shining with mysterious promises that even its Senshi couldn't really read.

But she sure could hear the planet whisperings and feel its light on her, and Minako knew that her future would definitively be very different from the one of the past Sailor Venus. Because Rei Hino and Sailor Mars were indeed different.

And for the first time, Minako felt it was a really good thing.


	6. Distance

_**Well… that's a little experiment… **_

_**4 little oneshots in one. Theme(s): Rei. Minako. Future. Family. Distance.**_

* * *

**Distance**

_**By youte**_

* * *

- **1 -**

Minako Aino just loved holidays.

She loved it and all it brought.

It was on holidays that almost all the most marvellous things that happened in her life occurred.

She could remember her first 'real' kiss, at Christmas, on a balcony under the stars, when she was 17.

The first time her girlfriend had said _I love you_ to her, a few weeks later, on Valentine's Day. And it didn't matter that it had been on the phone with Minako in London for a festival and Rei still in Tokyo.

Distance had never mattered in their relationship.

The first time they had made love had been during the summer of that same year, and she remembered every tiny seconds of it.

The weddings of their best friends had all been during holidays. Two of her four nieces and nephews were born during holidays. Her greatest concerts were organized during holidays. Minako and her partner had bought their house during a holiday.

They had adopted their twin sons a day before Christmas, seven years ago. Their very special gifts.

And it was on a holiday that Minako Aino had decided that she had done enough in the United States for her career and that she could go home a week earlier than scheduled. It was early in the morning, but she knew that her family was awake in the propriety in front of the door of which she stood with a mischievous and happy smile.

She could almost see their golden retriever lazily sleeping near the boys' guinea-pigs' cage. She could almost hear her quiet son humming as he drank his hot chocolate. His brother would be watching TV to his mother's dismay, talking enthusiastically about his favourite program. Her partner would be occupied with breakfast preparations and preventing one son from knocking over his cup like he almost always did and the other from coming closer to the TV set and from turning the sound up too much.

One ring. Two.

"Hello?"

"Hi."

"Mina."

"Reiko."

"Are you calling this early just to say my name?"

"And there I was thinking that you'd be happy to hear my voice."

"I am always happy to hear your voice."

"Aren't we in a flirty mode this morning?"

Rei laughed richly.

"Are you still coming home next week?"

"Maybe sooner."

"Great."

"When are you going back to work?"

"In two weeks. The boys are getting restless. Three weeks is a long time without seeing you."

"For them or for you?"

"I'll let you ponder that one, V."

"How are they?"

"Really well. Daiki spends his days swimming or playing in the garden and Hiroshi watching TV or playing video games."

"Don't sound so down," Minako laughed. "I was a little of both when I was their age. Hiroshi loves to play outside, too. Are you still worried about him? He's fine, Rei."

"I know. Do you want to talk to them?"

"Of course!"

"Hiroshi, Daiki! Guess who's on the phone!"

Minako smiled upon hearing the exclamations of their sons. They fought a little over which one would talk to her first before they decided to put the speaker on.

"Hi, mom!" they said together, a little too loudly.

Minako laughed.

"Hi, boys! How are you?"

"Fine."

"Me too. And you, mom?"

"I'm fine. Are you good with your mama?"

"Of course!" Hiroshi exclaimed. "Yesterday we had ice cream!"

"And the day before, we had chocolate cookies at aunt Mako's!"

"You lucky young men! I'm so jealous!"

"Don't worry, mommy. Aunt Usagi said that when you come back we are going to throw a surprise party for you and Makoto will make cakes!"

"Daiki!" Hiroshi cried. "We aren't suppose to talk about that to her! That's why it is called a _surprise_ party!"

"Oh, woups. I'm sorry, mama!"

Minako could hear Rei's soft laugh and she giggled.

"Don't worry, Daiki," she kindly said to her son. "It's nothing. And talking about surprises…"

"What? Do you have one for us?"

"Maybe."

"What is it?" Hiroshi asked. "Are we going to see you on TV again? We saw you on that broadcast the other day, you know, but it isn't like really seeing you."

"Am I prettier in person?"

"Way prettier!"

"That's sweet, thank you," Minako laughed. "But it's not that." She took a worried voice. "You mean you haven't received it yet?"

"No," Daiki said. "Received what?"

"That's weird. Maybe it arrived this morning. Have you checked at the front door?"

"No."

"Come on, Hiroshi! We're going to check it, mom!"

Minako patiently waited for her sons to run to the door.

"So? Are you there yet?" she asked the children with mirth.

"No! Not yet! We are opening the…" Minako laughed when she saw the boys' expressions at seeing her before them. "… door. _Mom!_"

"Hi."

"You're here!" Daiki exclaimed happily in the phone.

"Yes, I am here, sweetie, so you don't need the phone anymore."

The child reddened when his mom and brother giggled at him.

"Not funny!"

"Yes it was! But not as much as mom's surprise!" Hiroshi beamed at Minako. "That was a great joke! So cool!"

"I am the best, I know. And don't I get a hug for that?"

The boys went to her to give her big hugs, laughing.

"Mama! Mom's home!"

The twins half dragged her in their house. Minako locked eyes with a smiling Rei.

"Hi," the idol sheepishly said.

Rei rolled her eyes.

"You'll never change, Venus."

"Hush, you love me as I am."

Her partner smiled beautifully at her.

"Maybe."

Minako laughed and sat down to eat breakfast with her family, her luggage abandoned outside the front door. She patted her dog, listening to her sons' adventures and their mother's commentaries and laughter.

No, physical distance didn't matter, because even when they were apart their love linked them, emotionally they were never far from each other.

Never.

* * *

**- 2 -**

She didn't know what was worse.

Holidays, or the trips that it almost always implied.

So here they were, on a beach on a paradisiacal island, warm sun, blue sky and water, and only privileged people like them.

Minako would have been happy to stay in their homes in London or Tokyo, where they had big and comfortable properties where she felt at ease. But her husband loved to travel.

He loved the distance from their hectic life.

Minako used to love it, but she was older and wiser, and she knew that distance meant nothing. Even there, people recognized the TV producer in him and the superpopstar in her. Paparazzi could very well be taking pictures of them even as they walked toward their hotel. All of them had been seeking pictures of the little family for months, since Minako gave birth to her first child and stopped her career for the time being and absolutely refused to let her baby be a toy for the media. She even managed to keep the name of her daughter a secret, which wasn't that hard. Only her family and close friends had seen the baby, or at least most of them. She had planned to go to Tokyo to see old friends and to show off her precious little princess to them, maybe in a month or two.

But at the time her life was in London where she was raising her child. She didn't want the girl to grow up with an absent mother and to be raised by nannies. For now she was a full time mom, as surprising as it was for the people of the industry that knew her workaholic side. Maybe one day she'd go back to her idol career, but not before one or two more years with her baby.

London was quieter than Tokyo. Less fans, less paparazzi. But Minako and her family were never really alone. Never.

Except when they were at home, not answering their phones, not working, not answering the door. When they pretended to be alone in the world, alone together.

The woman watched her handsome husband as he put their baby down. The little girl giggled and tentatively took a few steps. Minako loved to see her daughter walk on her still unsure legs. She was so cute when she stumbled!

The tiny child looked at her mother with her caramel dark eyes and smiled at her, her chubby face alighted by an innocent amusement.

"Mommy?"

"Yes. I'm looking at you. Go, sweetie."

The toddler didn't need anymore incentive. She turned around and went happily away, but on her little legs away wasn't that far.

The father laughed.

"She's going to be a handful in a few months."

"She is already a little demon disguised as an angel, don't trust her cute smile and dimples."

"Mmh! She takes after her mommy!"

Minako smiled, for she knew her little girl was a spitting image of her and she was damn proud of the fact.

"Wowho! Stay here, baby!"

But the little pixie didn't listen to her daddy and ran as fast as her little feet would take her toward the trees in front of their hotel. Suddenly she disappeared, turning behind a parked bus.

"Damn."

They rapidly went behind the bus to retrieve their mischievous daughter. But Minako felt her heart clenched when she saw at least twenty persons there, retrieving their luggage and talking animatedly in little groups.

"I'm going to look for her over there."

Minako nodded absently to her husband and removed her big sunglasses before looking for her daughter, her worried eyes seeking everywhere a flash of the little white dress that the child was wearing. She was anxious. Scratch that! She was totally scared, and she would kill her husband if she lost her baby girl during that trip that was supposed to 'teach their daughter to be around people and to allow Minako to relax'. Their child was a little nervous around others because Minako had _maybe_ been a little too overprotective and had kept her in their house without seeing a lot of people, so what? Her baby wasn't even two yet! She had time!

That was another reason to be worried. Her baby girl cried every time she was around strangers and couldn't see her mother, but Minako couldn't hear her.

No. No need to panic. She could be… She had to be there somewhere!

Where the hell was her baby?! They had been a few feet behind her, she couldn't be that far!

"Reiko!" Minako called finally, not caring if in this tourists groups one or two recognized her. "Reiko, where are you?!"

She navigated around the blissfully unaware people and kept calling her child's name, until a soft voice reached her ears.

"Mommy?"

"Reiko!"

Minako managed to catch a glimpse of a white robe and dark hair and rushed at her daughter's side, stunned to see her smiling at a kneeled unknown woman. But Minako didn't take the time to analyze the situation and took her child in her arms, closing her eyes for two seconds. She stood up, kissing her daughter's cheeks and hair.

"Don't do that ever again! Why did you do that, Reiko? Bad girl, scaring mommy like that! You know that you can't run off like that!"

"Sorry?"

Minako couldn't help but giggle, her relief surpassing her anger. She finally looked at the woman who had somehow succeeded in soothing her extremely shy and fearful baby girl.

And when her eyes locked with the ones of the woman, Minako paled, stunned.

"R…Rei?"

"Hi, Minako," smiled Rei, apparently as stupefied as her.

Minako couldn't help but notice how beautiful her old friend had become. She was absolutely stunningly gorgeous, and the 27 year old young mother suddenly felt awkward. A first.

"Hello," Minako managed to say, keeping absently her daughter from taking her sunglasses off of her head. "It's been a while."

"Five years since the last time we saw each other, and more than three years since we wrote to each other or called each other."

"That's your fault. Why do you insist on burying yourself in unreachable locations?"

Rei softly smiled.

"You sound like Usagi. And I've been in Tokyo for four months now."

"You're home for good?"

"Maybe. And apparently you decided to play hermit yourself. The girls told me you almost never call anymore and that you haven't left England in two years."

A little ill at ease, Minako nodded.

"Yeah. I was… otherwise occupied. But we're going back to Tokyo next month, so I'll see them then."

"They'll be happy to see you."

"I bet they were ecstatic to see you too."

Rei laughed.

"Apparently we are the brats of the family."

Their smiles were suddenly bittersweet. There had been a time where they would have never let their relationships with each other or with the other girls almost disappear like that. But they both were really stubborn and independent, and they willingly let their career and their life lead them away.

Even a common past as extraordinary as theirs didn't suffice to link the five of them for life, guessed Minako cynically.

There were that, and there were also the love Rei and Minako had shared for two years and a half. And even if they had decided to follow separates ways, nothing had been the same after that. Their close friendship had been little by little eaten away by their lasting feelings, by yearning and opposite lives, and finally they had let the other go completly.

"Thank god, you have her!" Minako's husband exclaimed, a little out of breath, just as a pretty Caucasian woman appeared at Rei's side. "Hey, Angel, what have you done, huh?" he said to his daughter before kissing the top of her head.

The child giggled.

"Daddy."

Minako felt that the situation needed a clarification.

"Rei Hino, my husband, Kazuki Katiwa. Kazu, my friend, Rei Hino."

The man smiled charmingly.

"Rei? The famous one that wasn't at our wedding. You were missed. It's nice to finally meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too. I'm sorry, three years ago I was in Africa and couldn't come back easily."

"Yes, I heard. It's nothing."

"This is Lucy Adams, my partner," Rei said, presenting the woman with clear eyes and hair beside her. "Lucy, meet Minako and Kazuki Kitawa."

"Minako Aino, in fact. I kept my name."

Rei smirked.

"Why doesn't it surprise me?"

"Nice to meet you two," Lucy said in nearly perfect Japanese. "Rei talked to me about you," she confessed to Minako, who smiled.

"Kami, I hope that it wasn't all bad."

"No, not really."

It wasn't that Minako didn't like the woman, of course. She didn't know her. But she couldn't say that she was thrilled to meet her and to see Rei so close to someone. She had known that Rei had been with someone for three or four years, but she hadn't expected to meet her like that, unprepared.

Her baby wriggled in her arms, and Minako smiled.

"This is our daughter. Reiko Aino Kitawa."

She struggled with herself to keep her eyes far from Rei's and not to blush while revealing her name. That was kind of embarrassing. She always had thought that she would have the occasion to tell Rei on the phone that she had named her child after her. She never thought that it would happen like that. And especially in front of her husband and Lucy. Thanksfully, no one else seemed to find the situation awkward.

"Yeah, I met her. Hi," cooed Rei with a smile.

But Reiko hid her face under her mother's chin.

"I'm sorry. She's really shy. She doesn't see a lot of people, it's the first time she's away from home."

"She's cute," complimented Lucy with a big and sincere smile.

Minako nodded her thanks, just as it began to rain.

"Oh, we should better go inside. Are you staying at this hotel too?" Kazuki asked.

"Yes," said Lucy.

"Do you want me to take her?" Kazuki asked to his wife.

Minako hugged her daughter more tightly against her.

"No. I'm fine."

"You know, if you keep being that protective, our girl is going to be a spoiled baby all her life, and it's gonna be hell, for her and for us."

Minako glared at him, but he just chuckled and walked in front of her with Lucy.

"Are you there on vacation? I heard that you put your career on hold for your family."

"Yes," Minako replied softly with a poor smile. "Who would have thought, huh?"

"People change, I find it reassuring."

"I find it upsetting."

"You would," Rei smiled. "So, Reiko?"

The little girl lifted her head at the sound of her name, and giggled when she saw Rei looking at her.

"Yeah," Minako quietly acquiesced, reddening a little. "We didn't really plan to have a baby, but… she's here. I wanted my daughter to have a strong name."

"Reiko is a strong name?"

"You are."

Minako didn't look at Rei. She could almost feel her teasing and soft smile.

"She really is adorable," Rei finally said, her fingers lightly caressing the child's cheek. "She looks a lot like you."

Minako's heart swelled with pride, Rei's words meaning the world to her. Reiko giggled in her arms.

"Again!" she said happily, wanting Rei to tickle her.

Minako smiled, surprised and elated by her baby's reaction.

"She likes you."

"Apparently."

They walked in silence. Minako's eyes fell on Lucy who was talking with Kazuki about the island.

"She seems to be a good woman."

Rei smirked, and shrugged.

"She is. Your husband seems to be a good man."

"He is."

"That's good."

"Yeah."

They were in the hotel. For a few seconds there was an awkward pause, and then the two couples decided to split up to return to their respective rooms.

"So, see you around," Minako said, heading toward the elevators.

Rei nodded.

"Yeah, maybe. Or in Tokyo?"

"Ok. Bye."

"Bye."

As Minako entered the elevator with her husband and child, she thought that, definitely, distance meant nothing.

Distance was just a lie, and alone was just an illusion.

In more ways than one.

* * *

**- 3 -**

Distance was like a drug.

When Minako liked someone, she couldn't help but keep her distance from that person. When she felt good somewhere, let it be a hotel, a loft or a large property, she didn't stay very long. When she went to Japan, she planned a trip to England, when in England, she looked forward to go to China.

She was like that. She knew it wasn't a good trait. That was just a part of the woman she was, that was how she grew up to be.

She loved her fans, because fans were there and weren't. They came to the concert to see an idol and after it went to their home satisfied. Fans were like ghosts. Friendly ghosts who smiled and cried and complimented her and spent their money to make her richer because they loved her work. Fans were easy. Lovers generally were, too, especially the ones she found in remote locations, the ones that didn't know her or were too intoxicated to even care. Medias were sometimes a bother, but a big smile and a few words and it was it.

Distance was her way of life. All those people thought that Minako Aino was a part of their life and had been for years, they thought they knew her and that she was here, always, even when she was at the other end of the world.

They were under the illusion that she would always be there.

Oh, how Minako loved irony!

That was why distance was a really good thing. It helped to stay human, to stay oneself, to preserve the soul and mind.

Minako may have sacrificed a lot of things along the way, maybe even her heart and her moral, but nobody dictated her life.

There she was, in Tokyo, on a hotel roof, looking at the stars, the taste of tears in her mouth, of disgust in her heart and of despair in her mind.

Lucky Minako Aino. Star at 13, presently superstar, independent, strong, secretive, beautiful, rich, known philanthropist, with a dream job and a great body and a good mind to go with that. Without family. Without real friends. And dying.

Yeah, she loved irony, all right.

She had just finished her last tour. And when she said last, she meant it, even if nobody except her and her manager knew it. Two to four months. That was what she had left. Because apparently brain tumors didn't totally disappear because of magic. No, they slept and they awoke years later.

She had seen some of her childhood friends today. Usagi and Mamoru, and Ami. That had been awkward. The three of them along with two of their kids had been eating ice creams. They had talked, just a few minutes, exchanging pleasantries, and then Minako had found an excuse to leave. She wondered if she would see them again in this life.

Probably not.

After all, it had been six years since their last real gathering (not counting quick and awkward exchanges after concerts or one or two chance encounters). All of them were highly occupied people. And Minako was an expert at playing the overbooked girl.

They didn't call her anymore, nor did they write to her. She didn't blame them. She never could open herself to them as a teen, she had been too mature and too… distant. Too cold. They had tried. She had, too. But she hadn't learnt, and in the end, they had let her go.

Only one person had managed to pass her walls, besides Artemis. That was Rei Hino. And for the best period of Minako's life, Rei had been the most important person in her world. Scratch that, she had been her whole universe.

But that was in the past, too.

They never had been, and they never will be.

They had moved on from their close friendship – almost relationship, not in the best terms with each other but not enemies either, and with time they had become strangers to one another, too.

Rei was married. That had come as a shock. She wondered if it had been a surprise for Usagi and the others, who had stayed in Rei's life. Minako had always thought that Rei was the type to dislike men totally. But she had married a man – a musician and Shinto priest. Minako had read the article, but she hadn't bothered to retain the name. She had been invited to the ceremony three years ago, but she had been in the States at the time and she couldn't have thought of a more awkward situation for her, so she hadn't gone and had written a congratulations card certainly too impersonal.

She had never been good with that sort of things.

Anyway, Ami had mentioned that afternoon that Rei and her husband had been trying for a child for more than a year, but a test had recently revealed that Rei would never conceive.

Minako had almost thrown up then, and it hadn't (only) been because of her illness and that damn chimiotherapy.

She loved irony, but she also hated it.

How life could be so… Was there even a word for it?

Rei wanted a child, and she would make such a wonderful mom, and she was sterile.

And Minako, who would surely make a horrible mother, who was dying, had had an abortion the year before after getting pregnant from a one night stand with a drug addict and otherwise genius guitarist and compositor while she herself had drunk a little too much, a fact that, of course, she didn't want to see be revealed. To anyone. Control and illusion were everything.

She never had a drink again after that. She had gone to the clinic alone, she had cried one night long, and she had never thought about 'it' again. She had never talked to anyone about 'it'. And she was going to take that secret with her to the grave.

Yeah. Lucky Minako Aino.

She was going to die at thirty and a few days, and all she would be remembered for were her music and, maybe, the lives she had saved or had tried to save when she had been Sailor V and Venus. And for all her philanthropic works, too. These were reasons to be proud, weren't they?

No love, no baby, no friends, no parents, no home, not even a dog, nothing. But it was okay, wasn't it? It was okay to die without knowing what a family really was, what having a home felt like, what being able to trully trust people was like? It was okay.

It was okay. Wasn't it?

Seeing Rei one last time would have been great though. Just to talk to her. To be in her presence, near her aura. Hear her voice and remember the good old days like normal people did.

But Minako never looked back.

God. Venus. Anybody.

Why? Why was she even there? Why hadn't they left her dead years before? Why?

She was a loser. She wasn't one to admit defeat, but this time, she had lost.

And she had 8 to 16 weeks remaining to dwell on it.

She didn't know yet what she was going to do. She wanted to go to Europe, buy a house in a quiet location and live her short life doing nothing. She didn't have anything in mind that she wanted to do. Really. That sounded pathetic, even to her.

Well, she wanted to see Rei.

But she couldn't.

She wanted to confess (to Rei) that she had lost faith in this world and in humanity a while ago and that it was a good thing that she wasn't needed as Venus anymore because she didn't know if she would have the heart to defend that planet and its inhabitants, and that the ex Senshi of Light and Love liked the dark better and didn't believe in love but hated quite easily. She wanted to tell her that what had kept her going was her, Rei Hino, because the thought that someone as extraordinary as her existed gave her hope. She wanted to see Rei and to tell her that if she had known, she would have kept her baby and given it to her to raise and love it like it was her own and that she would have died happy.

She wanted to say all of that and more to someone, all that she could never tell, neither as a child nor as an adult because she always had a responsibility or another, and she wanted that someone to be Rei, because she was all she could think of because she had always been in love with her and Minako felt in her heart that she was the only one that could understand her and, just maybe, that would forgive her for being such a pitiful form of life.

But she couldn't confess all that. To anyone. And she wouldn't.

And in the end, it didn't even matter.

Because distance and time would erase it all.

* * *

**- 4 -**

Rei smiled, looking at her wife and child.

She had left the clinic three days ago, and she never felt this well and happy.

In peace.

"Aren't you a cute baby? Aren't you the cutest and prettiest baby ever?" cooed Minako, eyes shining with that love that was characteristic of Venus and that Rei could feel in her aura.

The woman lightly tickled their first newborn's feet and laughed at the sounds coming from their daughter's mouth.

"She's so cute!" Minako squealed happily for the thousand of times, her hands never stopping touching the baby, placed between the mothers on the bed.

There wasn't any distance between the three of them, that's how it was every time it was the moment to bottle feed the baby.

"I know," smiled Rei.

"I want others like her!"

"Oh," frowned Rei, "one is fine. If you want more, then _you_ get pregnant and give birth to it."

Minako pouted.

"But I want your babies! With your eyes and hair and smile!"

"Yeah, yeah. Flatterer."

"Look how beautiful our baby girl is! You make cute babies, Reiko. And Hanabi wants little brothers or sisters. Don't you, Hana? See! She agrees with me!"

"Don't start two timing me!"

"Do you want to bet again to determine who'll carry our next little miracle?"

"No."

Minako giggled.

"That's because you're scared to lose. Again."

"No, that's because the idea of another pregnancy with you in the house is terrifying."

"I wasn't that bad."

"You totally were. I bet even Motoki wasn't as anxious or excited as you."

"I was just happy. And a little nervous," smiled Minako, a little embarrassed.

Rei smiled.

"But I'll admit that it was cute."

"Not as cute as our daughter."

"Stop saying that, she is going to be full of herself in a few years."

"I'm going to make her feel like a princess."

"She's the daughter of one of the most famous gay couples in the country, of its most famous idol and of – "

"Yeah, yeah. But who said it wasn't fun to be different and great? I am, and I'm not a brat!"

Rei coughed and Minako lightly hit her.

"Reiko!"

"Sorry," said Rei sheepishly.

"Yeah, well, you're forgiven. But only because you have given me such a wonderful baby," Minako whispered, just before capturing her partner's lips with all the love she felt for her. She smiled when they parted. "Thank you, Rei."

"You're welcome," Rei whispered back, her eyes shining too much.

She stood up and took the now sleeping baby in her arms. Minako pouted.

"Already?"

"She's asleep. Kami, I'm exhausted."

"What time is it?"

"Hum, almost midnight."

"Wow. We should tell the others not to come tomorrow."

"Mina!"

Minako pulled the cover over her body and yawned.

"But she's only nine days old and everybody is already trying to steal her from us," she whined. "Usagi and Mako are going to hold her all day!"

"You were as happy for them when they had their children as they are for us," Rei laughed quietly.

She went to Hanabi's room to put her daughter in her crib and tucked her in slowly, with the slightest hesitation and biggest reverence reserved to young parents.

Minako was already sleeping when she laid down on their bed.

"I can't believe it," Rei whispered, smirking at her partner.

"I heard that," Minako mumbled softly. "M'not asleep."

"Remember, you're the one that will have to go get Hanabi next time. And she's going to cry in a few short hours."

"Mmh. I know."

Rei turned off the light and closed her eyes with a little smile, guessing that she will have to get up once again to feed the baby. Minako really couldn't function between two and five o'clock. That was Rei's territory. They were even complementary in these aspects.

"So," Minako suddenly mumbled, "are we planning to have another one in three years?"

"Yes, I want a tiny Minako."

"No, I want another little Reiko."

"No way."

Minako giggled and invited herself in Rei's arms, sighting happily.

"I love you."

"I love you," Rei replied before kissing her hair.

They were both asleep a few seconds later, exhausted, in each other's arms.

Because, really, who needed distance?


	7. Secret Love

_**This oneshot takes place after the Special Act.**_

_**PS: Well, it got a lot longer than expected and a lot more… dramatic. Oh well.**_

* * *

**Secret Love**

_**By youte**_

"I have a question for you."

Minako was surprised, but her face didn't show it. The wedding was ending, and Rei, the idol and their friends were leaving, some more drunk than others.

Rei was fine, she had drunk only two glasses of champagne. Minako was secretly sober, having discreetly replaced the alcohol in her glass by fruits cocktails. She hated alcohol, in all ways possible, but it wouldn't be good for her idol image if it were known. She was already a public philanthropist and the golden child of Japan, and being too goody goody wasn't really beneficial to a career like hers, especially if it weren't true. And it weren't. Minako was far greyer than white.

"A question?" she said, a little tipsily for good measure. "Okay. I'm waiting. Shoot."

Rei blinked, then looked around them uneasily. Minako gazed at her with secret curiosity. Since she had come back from Kyoto, Rei was calm, eerily so, more mysterious and beautiful than ever. Minako and her hadn't had the time to see each other a lot before the wedding, and in fact, they hadn't seen each other a lot these past two years, Minako being busy as always, and Rei being occupied with her training.

"Hmm, could we go to a place more private?"

Minako couldn't stop the teasing smile that came to her.

"An interesting proposition, Reiko," she remarked in a flirty tone, leaning toward her friend, "but I'm not that kind of girl."

"Venus, stop that."

"You're not funny," Minako whined, keeping her tipsy act. "Taxi!"

The ride toward Minako's hotel was awfully silent. Rei seemed tense, she often was when they were alone in enclosed places. In the past, this reaction had kept Minako's hope up, but only for her heart to be crushed again.

Rei didn't remember. Like all the others, but Minako didn't care about them. Rei didn't _want_ to remember, and it was ironically dramatic, really.

Minako had been living with the memory of an epic love since she was thirteen (maybe too young to remember things like that). She was twenty now, and despite her travels and the distance, she just couldn't forget, Venus in her wouldn't let her forget.

And maybe the real problem was that it wasn't only Venus anymore. It wasn't only about the princess of Mars either. It was about Rei, and the person she was in this life, and about Minako. Minako, and the person she fell in love with, the stubborn, gifted, beautiful, frustrating, altruistic and extraordinary woman she fell in love with who was incapable of seeing her or understanding all her hints.

Really, it was getting ridiculous, given that Mars had been the most forward in the relationship Venus and her had shared.

But it was alright. It hurt, but Minako had accepted it. And in a way she liked the fact that Rei couldn't remember, because she wanted her to be free. Free of all these terrible memories of hate, blood, war and pain that awoke Minako at night and left her a trembling mess.

Once in the living room, Minako opened her arms widely and smiled brightly.

"We're here, with plenty of privacy! So, Mars Reiko, do you want a drink?"

Rei frowned, eyeing her prudently, disapproval in her gaze.

"No, thanks."

Minako giggled.

"Come on, Reiko, don't be a party pooper." She went to her and stopped in her personal space, smiling upon seeing every shade of brown in Rei's eyes. "It's a happy evening!"

"Morning. The sun will be coming up in three hours."

"And yet you're still awake. Reiko, I am proud, you are making progress!"

"All of us can't be superstars and party all nights."

"Tsk, tsk. I don't go to parties every evening, I have a lot of work and an highly demanding housemate. That little plush cat hates being alone."

"Where is he?" Rei asked suddenly, eyeing her surroundings curiously.

"With Luna." Minako giggled and leaned towards Rei's face with the excuse of confidence. "They like each other a lot."

"No kidding."

"Oooh. Does my little second in command have romantic intuition now? My god, Kyoto did you a lot of good! You're almost a grown up!"

"Minako," hissed Rei, "could you please stop being worse than a child high on sugar?"

"It's the alcohol. You should try it, it makes the world all funny!"

Rei pushed one of her long locks behind her shoulder, and Minako's gaze followed the gesture without her permission.

"You look tired," whispered Rei suddenly.

The idol didn't know what froze her. The truth or the tenderness and worry behind it.

"It was a long day. But a great day."

"I heard from Artemis that you had a long year."

"Won awards, made money, enjoyed myself a lot and wrote and sang every day. Loved it!"

"He said you've been having troubles. Health troubles."

That damn little fur ball… He was going to regret that later.

"Nope. Fine, as always! That was your question?"

She went toward the windows and the bar, playing the girl highly occupied.

"You seem exhausted, Minako. He said you began to have bad headaches three months ago."

"He should also have said that my neurologist told me that my last results were ok. No sign of relapse. Don't you worry! Now I should be the one worrying about you, you stupid little soldier that failed to contact her leader before throwing herself in the enemy's –"

"I'm fine," Rei said begrudgingly, embarrassed.

"It still hurts, I saw it when Usagi hugged you. You are not fine. And I was appalled by your idiocy, Mars. Even a Uranian would have had more common sense!" Minako forced her voice not to show the anger and fear that had filled her heart when she had felt that Rei had been hurt. She hadn't even gone to the hospital after the battle, seeing her love in that place would have certainly undone her. But she had sent a gift that Rei had probably hated (it had been intended, of course). "So, what do you want to drink? This hotel has all that exist and more!"

"I told you I didn't want anything."

"Don't get all moody just because I reprimanded you."

"I know what I did was stupid, Minako. Unlike you I'm not so childish that I can't see my mistakes."

"Good. So, a drink? You're not even tipsy."

"Trying to get me drunk?"

That could be… interesting.

Bad Minako, bad Minako!

The idol turned from the bar and crossed her arms, eyeing Rei with false drunk seriousness.

"Hey, have you been drunk at least once?"

"As a matter of fact, yes, last year."

"Really? I missed that? Damn! You need a repeat."

"You weren't there, as always."

Minako frowned at her bitterness.

"Do you miss me when I'm gone?" she said with a bright smile, but she was shaking interiorly.

She wanted Rei to miss her. Like she cruelly missed her, every day.

What Rei said, however, was not what she wanted to hear.

"Have _you_ been drunk at least once?"

Minako blinked. Then giggled.

"Seriously?"

Rei sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Drop the act, I know that you haven't drunk one drop of alcohol, Minako. I can feel it when someone is intoxicated."

Minako smiled more softly, secretly proud of Rei, but also exhausted and thrown off balance.

"That's true," she said quietly, closing the bar and sighing. She released her hair on her shoulders before shrugging. "I'm just used to follow the lead, like in all these jet set parties."

"I think you're too used to lie."

"Are you here just to question my way of life? Again?"

"No. You really never drink?"

Minako averted her eyes. Things were getting a little too personal, as always with Rei.

"Yes," she answered. "I don't like it."

"Why?"

"And why don't I smoke while at it? And take drugs? Multiplying my chances of getting new cancers and tumors and dying before thirty and hurting my friends and family? Getting intoxicated and telling all my secrets and my life to strangers and destroying my home and being incapable to fully control my actions anymore and losing myself until I can't even discern…" She stopped there, crossed her arms. "Yeah," she said quietly, bitterness in her voice and cloudy memories in her mind, "alcohol and I are old friends. Let just say that I didn't end up in a cold orphanage when I was eight just for the fun of it."

She had made Rei ill at ease. She felt the woman's guilt and sadness easily, and she understood it. There was a slight curiosity there also, without a doubt because it was the first time in all these years that Minako evoked her past and her lack of family.

"Don't worry about it," she said with a smile before going to Rei to poke her in the ribs. "I met great humans along the way, like Shacho and Amachachi. So, you came here just to ask about my drinking habits and my health?"

"Actually, that wasn't what I wanted to ask you about."

"Ah? Then, what? If it's about you dying to sing a duet with me for my next opus, you know it's a yes. I mean, I know how great I am, so –"

"Your arrogance has no limit."

Minako winked.

"That's part of my charm."

"I don't want to sing, I hate it."

"Yeah, yeah, heard that before," sighed Minako, checking her nails in a bored attitude she borrowed from her manager years before.

"Please. It's something important."

There was a weird thing in Rei's tone, in her aura. Something that Minako hadn't noticed before then, something strong and frightening.

Minako tensed, eyed her cautiously, her heart full of sudden fear and worry.

"You are well, aren't you?" she asked in a soft, scared voice that surprised even her.

"What? Yes, yes, of course! I'm fine, don't worry."

"Are you crazy to worry me like that?"

"I'm sorry. I'm fine, I promise."

"So, what is it, then? Is it for love advice?" she teased, hoping with all her heart that it wasn't the case.

God, _that_ would kill her.

Rei ignored her.

"I had weird dreams lately."

"Huh… okay?"

"About our past."

"So?"

"I mean the past of Mars and Venus," Rei corrected herself.

Minako froze. Of all the possible times…

God, no. She couldn't remember!

"You mean you remember some things?" she asked, rather calmly.

She was really a good liar.

She was not proud of the fact.

"_A_ thing. It's always the same dream. It's always the same evening."

Oh, that was bad. Minako didn't like how Rei averted her eyes, how she was nervous and embarrassed.

_Very_ bad.

What if Rei didn't want to see her anymore because of their past? What if she was revolted? What if she accused Minako of only caring about her because of Mars in her?

_Why now, after all this time?_

"What evening?" she asked, her voice thick with fear and colder than she intended.

She had never been good at facing her own emotions.

"I was – I mean, Mars was in her room, in the palace. She was waiting for you - for _Venus_. It was night, and Venus was late, and this was making Mars really nervous because Venus had been on a mission for a few days. I don't know why or how, but she knew that you weren't fine and she wanted to see you. But when you – _Venus_ entered the room, well, she knew that something went really wrong without knowing what, because Venus looked fine, physically. But her eyes… and she seemed so hurt and so tired… Too tired for someone that was supposed to hold on and give hope to armies and people, supposed to fight with her heart. It was dangerous, and Mars knew it. Venus could die if she wasn't entirely concentrated on the battle or the palace's intrigues, if her emotions weren't in it. Mars was terrified of that happening. But… but Venus didn't tell her what had happened to her. She just… were so angry, and so exhausted too…"

Minako grounded her teeth together. That was worse than what she had expected. Of all the things to remember…!

She controlled her feelings, but couldn't help but feel the other woman's anxiety and… Rei was so confused.

"And then… huh…"

Rei fell silent, blushing.

Minako couldn't help her little amused smile, even if she herself was really embarrassed.

"No need to put that into words," she quietly reassured her.

That night, the princesses had made love. It had been with tenderness, love, worship, despair. It had been fabulous and terribly heart wrenching. And it had been their last time. The day after, the last war had begun. A week after that, Mars had died in Venus' arms, and the leader had followed her barely an hour later.

"It's a memory," confirmed Minako, trying to keep the conversation as normal as possible.

Even if there was _nothing_ normal in there.

"So, huh, they were…?"

"In love? Yes. When they died they had been together for two years."

"Oh."

Minako didn't know what to say. Why Rei had come to her? Why now? They were both very tired, it could have waited a little. It could have waited a few hours of sleep.

"Why do I remember that?"

Minako raised one eyebrow.

"I don't know."

"Why now?"

"I don't know."

"Why are you the only one to remember it all?"

Minako didn't answer.

So, _that_ was why she had come to her.

"I'm the leader," she said tersely. They were on dangerous territory. "I had to know."

"We didn't, and we did our job."

"It's a complicated matter."

"That's what Artemis said."

Minako couldn't help the panic that overthrew her common sense. She rapidly went to Rei, eyes alighted by terror, and took her by the shoulders.

"Don't tell me you told him!"

"What?" Rei said, confused by her reaction, surprised and worried. "I told him about that memory this morning when he came to the shrine. He said to talk to you about it."

"What did you told him, _exactly_? Did you tell him about us?"

"It's not us."

"Not important!" protested Minako, letting her hands drop at her sides and forcing herself to stay calm… which did not succeed. "Tell me you didn't tell him!"

"No, I didn't, I just told him that I had a dream that could be a memory! Why are you reacting like that?"

"You can't tell him," Minako warned her. "Never. You can't tell any of them!"

"You mean Artemis doesn't know?"

That seemed to completely shock her. More so than the revelation of Mars and Venus' relationship.

"Of course he doesn't know! I didn't really knew him in the Silver Millenium. How could he know?"

"Well… I thought that he would know something that important about the Silver Millenium. And about you. I thought that you told each other everything."

Minako could have burst into tears right then. It couldn't be true. Rei couldn't be there, telling her all that.

She just controlled the tears that swelled in her eyes and went to sit down on the armchair to hide them. A little ironic smile made its way on her pale face, her gaze on her own hands

"Officially we do tell each other everything, yes," she bitterly whispered. Rei stayed where she was, and Minako was grateful for that. "But I'm aware that he has a few secrets, and I have mine. One of them is that relationship. And I will never tell him about it."

"Why? He's your guardian and your best friend! If you can't tell him, I can."

"No, you _don't_! Didn't you hear a word of what I said?!"

"I don't understand! Why don't you explain yourself, for a change?!"

The incongruity of the situation overwhelmed Minako, and she almost choked on her own breath. It was getting harder to control her tears, and to control Venus inside of her.

She had a little laugh, that type of laugh people had when they just didn't know how to react without breaking down.

"I… I can't believe I have to explain things to you, of all people. For god's sake, you're supposed to be the only one to know and understand besides me! You are _not_ supposed to defy me on that, of all things! You're supposed to be on my side!"

Rei looked at her with her caramel eyes full of sadness, excuses and warmth.

"I'm sorry, but I can't remember more than that, and I have no idea what you're talking about."

"If you can't remember anything else," Minako said, with a soft, tired voice, "than why did you remember that? For what purpose? Why now, when it could destroy so many things in our lives, and not when we were Senshi, when I needed you to remember to lead them and help me?"

"I… I don't know. I just… it just came in my dreams."

"Then you have to forget it. And keep that for you."

"You mean the relationship? Why?"

Minako stood.

"Because nobody knew, besides us," she explained, trying to not let her voice tremble. "Because it was against the War Laws and considered like high treason by all royal courts. And because high treason meant either dishonour and exile, or plain death."

"What? Why? Because they were women?"

Minako had to smile at that one.

"No. Venus was a planet of love, Venusians, even linked to a partner, had open relationships, often with both sexes. Martians were more… complicated. They were very loyal to their wife or husband, and if officially they didn't condemn same sex relationships like other planets like Mercury or Saturn, they didn't encourage it either. No, the problem of Mars and Venus was more complex. Mars wasn't the direct heir to the martian throne, but Venus was to the venusian throne, and as such she couldn't link herself with an extra-venusian, especially another royal heir. But that could have been overlooked because their kingdoms were in ruins and their planets nearly uninhabitable already. The most important thing was that they both had made oaths to the Moon Throne to protect the silver heir and the last kingdom or to die trying."

"But they could do both! And they did!"

"They engaged their honor and the honor of their ancestors and families when they became Senshi. And as such, they were supposed to stay entirely dedicated to their mission. But they fell in love with each other, and if they ignored it at first, war and despair made them reach for the other's strength. They couldn't trust anybody, not even their princess, but they had each other."

"So there was a law against it?"

"Of course. The Queen Serenity was secretly terrified of what was happening and felt that she was losing her power over the other planets. She knew what was to come, and she feared for her only child and heir. God, Princess Serenity wasn't anything like Usagi, you know. She was arrogant and egoistical, incapable of defending herself or of thinking properly. She was cold. Queen Serenity ordered for the four Senshi to be brought to her on the Moon, where they would stay to protect her daughter. At the time the planets were falling apart. The princesses were all young adults who fought for peace and protected their people. But the royal families had no choice. The princesses went to the Queen and swore to accomplish their duty. To avoid the risk of bad decisions and conflicts of interest, Serenity declared romantic relationships forbidden in the armies. Of course, nobody thought that it could happen between the leaders of these armies, at the time. Least of all us. "

"She took four royal children form their home planet to protect her own child at the possible cost of their lives?"

"Protecting the royal family of the Moon was at first only an aspect of being a Senshi, and an aspect based on love. Queen Serenity changed the priorities, and the royal families didn't protest. They weren't in any position to do so. In the end we were the last survivors of our families, and with a few refugees from our kingdoms, the last survivors of our races. We fought for them until the end. But we knew full well that we were going to die a violent death on the grey sand of the Moon."

"So Mars and Venus hid their secret from every one? For two years?"

"They were highly skilled and clever. Very cautious. And despite their love for each other, their relationship never interfered with their decisions on a battle field."

"That's why you haven't told Artemis? Because it was forbidden?"

"You still don't understand. Law was different back then. A princess who broke it? A Senshi who betrayed her oaths? It was unheard of! Honor was all they had left. They lost everything in the wars, every last trace of themselves. They loved their soldiers, they loved their people and they wanted to be there to guide them, to be there to protect them. They would have died hundred of times before risking to lose their honor and dishonoring the memory of their Houses, and possibly being exiled."

Rei was somber, sad, and angry for these lost lives, Minako could feel it. She marvelled at the fact that this woman could feel so much for people she couldn't even remember.

"You don't want Artemis to know, because you don't want him to know that you betrayed the Queen's orders."

"Artemis and Luna for that matter were asleep for a long time. That means that the Silver Millenium is still very fresh in their memories. They would see that news like treason."

"But it was in a past life! It was thousands of years ago, and all they did was loving each other! I'm sure Luna and Artemis wouldn't see you differently. I am not scared of their reaction. It doesn't matter who they were back then, today they're our friends, and we're not even Senshi anymore, let alone royal princesses, even if you tend to act like one."

"They don't need to know. As you said, it was a long time ago."

Rei frowned.

"Why are you so adamant on keeping that secret?"

"Because it is a secret, don't you know what that means? Because we didn't want anybody to know, and you could respect at least that!"

"I can't believe you, of all people, are so terrified of just telling your best friend about a past love."

"It's not that simple!"

Rei went to her, her gaze fixed on her, searching hers, wanting answers, wanting truth.

Minako stood and almost took a step back.

"Then what? What is it that makes you so afraid, Minako? Or is it Venus that is scared? What are you not telling me?"

"Stop that."

"What happened to Venus back then? What made her so angry, so fragile that night?"

"Rei, _stop."_

"Why didn't she tell Mars about it if she really trusted her?"

Something in Minako snapped, surely it was Venus' anger and outrage that were screaming in her.

"She did! I did!" she cried, feeling ironically utterly alone. "We trusted each other! We protected each other!"

"So, that's what you were doing? Protecting me?"

If Minako hadn't been so upset, terrified and so concentrated on keeping the tears and the memories at bay, she would have noticed Rei's slip of the tongue, the way she identified herself as Mars, the way she was all too adept at playing her.

"I'm really tired, you should leave."

But Rei didn't move, so close to Minako that it was almost torture.

"What happened to you? That's why you don't want to tell Artemis, right? It isn't only because of this honor thing, I _know_ you trust him, I know you love him and you know he would never leave you after learning that secret. No, you're protecting him, too, aren't you? From what?"

"It isn't important," Minako said through her teeth.

"It is. It is, it's because of that I had these dreams, it's because of that Mars manifested in me. To warn me. To tell me. To show me that I was missing something important."

"No, you don't. Neither do Artemis."

"What happened back then?"

"Nothing."

"I thought we trusted each other?"

"I do trust you."

"You never show it, _never_. You never tell me anything about you, you're rarely open about you life, or your childhood, or our past."

"It doesn't mean I don't trust you."

"No, it means you don't really know _how_ to trust now, in this life. For example why did you never tell me that we were lovers?"

"What?" Minako said bitterly with all the irony she had left. "I should have said it between our fights? Oh, hey, Mars, I know you just love to be preoccupied only with the present but in our past lives we were in love! Yeah, that would have gone really well, all right."

"Don't be like this."

"You know I'm right! You were a complicated teen, struggling with so many things, you didn't understand, didn't listen to me and were so damn stubborn! Ah, Mars and you have that in common, that's for sure."

"Yeah, because you were such a level headed teen!"

"Things were complicated. They still are for that matter. And I think we really need to sleep."

"I'm not going to sleep until you tell me the truth."

"It isn't important! It was long ago, it's nothing!"

"Then why won't you tell me?!"

There was hurt in Rei's eyes. Hurt, and worry, and… and tenderness. Things that Minako longed to see in that gaze for so long. But she didn't know if it was Mars, or Rei. She couldn't hope… That was funny. After all, she had been scared to see Rei doubting her because of her memories of Venus' life and love, and finally it was the other way around.

And she was so damn tired…

"Because it would hurt you," she finally confessed quietly. "Because it isn't important now and here, because it's something that already happened, because it's done. Because you are like Artemis, you would get angry and then all sad and it isn't worth it."

"Don't you think we have the right to choose?"

"No. It doesn't really concern you."

"If it concerns Venus, then it concerns Mars. And if it has an effect on you, then it concerns me too."

"Rei, stop it."

The use of her name seemed to destabilize Rei, but only for a second. Minako was shaking. She didn't want to remember the anger of Venus, her despair. And she certainly didn't want to remember her own past, the consequences of a forbidden love. She didn't want to remember the things she never ever talked about these last years, remember death, the fear, the panic, the coldness, the pain, the nightmares.

"Tell me," Rei asked, her eyes so soft, her aura so warm, so reassuring. "Please, Mina."

Really, it was ridiculous to be so shaken by the simple use of the diminutive of her own given name.

Like it was ridiculous to be scared like a little child because of the memories of wars and deaths that plagued her much needed sleep. Like it was ridiculous to still be terrified of darkness because of the memories of a pitch black closet where a little girl had been locked in for hours for a reason or another. Like it was ridiculous to still be at twenty craving to be loved and protected, wanting to be able to break down and to cry sometimes, to be held and told that everything was going to be alright.

Minako wasn't the type to be all these. She was the type to push her fears deep inside herself and to find the strength to conquer the entire world. She was the type to force herself to sleep with the light off despite her traumatisms. She was the type to smile all day and appear unmoved by everything thrown at her, let it be youmas, insults, a talking plush cat, a nasty reporter or life threatening brain tumors, and then let quiet tears come only when in the shower where nobody could see or hear her.

She wasn't a child. She hadn't been for a very long time. She was even much older than twenty years old inside.

And yet she didn't know why, but suddenly, she felt like a tiny little girl in a big scary world that was threatening to swallow her whole, again, and Rei was here and she seemed so strong and so understanding and so comforting and so beautiful it _hurt_.

"Tell me, Minako. What happened?"

"She knew."

Her own voice surprised her. Quiet, and too fragile, almost childlike. Venus was suddenly silent inside of her, and it was so strange…

"The Queen?" Rei whispered.

"Yes."

Minako didn't look at her. She was looking at the floor, but what she was seeing was a different matter. And she could feel Rei's soft eyes on her, could feel her hand tenderly brush her arm.

"What happened?"

"When I came back from Io, she convoked me in the throne room. I thought it was for a debriefing, even if it was weird, because she always let us change and rest a little after a battle or a trip. She was alone in the room, her aura was cold and her eyes were full of repressed sadness… I knew then, that something was wrong. She told me that she knew, that she finally felt it, that we were breaking our oaths and the trust everybody had in us. I defended myself. I knew she couldn't exile us, we were both too important, too strong, too loved. She needed us, and I think she really didn't want to see us exiled. She had respect for us, even if she took my honor away with her words."

"Then, what happened?"

Something weird constricted Minako's chest. It was cold but scorching, and suddenly she couldn't see the floor for her eyes were full of tears. Her voice barely shook - it was a relief.

"She had to do something. She made me choose. I did."

"Choose what?"

"Because I was the leader of the army and the most skilled diplomat, she accepted to not bring you into all of this and I took the blame for both of us. I accepted to bear the consequences of my actions."

"What did she do?"

Minako hesitated once more, unable to raise her teary eyes, but Rei put her hand on her arm once more, so tenderly it almost burnt.

"She cursed me."

"She… what?"

"She used the Cristal to curse my soul. The punishment was to come later and if it didn't… it was to come in my next life."

"Next life? You… you mean, she cursed _you_? But…"

Minako felt the exact moment when Rei understood the meaning of her words. She felt her disbelief, her pain, and her anger at the queen, at the past, at life. She felt her sadness too, her outrage, all of it. It was worse than what she had expected, she hated feeling Rei so distressed, so hurt.

The tears that finally ran on her cheeks seemed so cold, and Rei so warm…

"Your sickness… That's because of… us? You think the curse did that?"

"That, and maybe other things, like the fact that I have all my memories. Never knew for sure," Minako whispered truthfully. "I tried too… determine it, when I received my memories and understood that it… But, I… It doesn't matter now anyway, it's over."

"I don't care that it's over! She did that! That's revolting! What kind of kingdom that was? I thought the Silver Millenium was great!"

Minako raised her head at that, shaking her head.

"It was," she defended. "It was, before the wars. Despair changed all of it. Queen Serenity made mistakes, but she was a pure soul."

"Maybe she had a pure soul before she cursed you because you loved me," Rei said with a strange voice, and Minako was surprised by the level of her anger, "but she certainly wasn't pure after it. She _killed_ you, Minako, and you were barely fifteen! You were an innocent child in all of that, you paid for something that wasn't really a crime after a passed form of you died for a lost cause and to protect innocent people! What is pure in all of that?"

"There is nothing pure in war," Minako found herself softly saying, trying to erase the traces of her tears from her face with her right hand. "It doesn't matter. Really, it's done now. I'm not sure the Queen herself knew what would happen to me. I really don't know why you had to remember that night. I was just angry at myself and at the world and… I shouldn't even have come to you."

"But you did! And you should have told Mars."

"No. See? That's why I didn't want to tell you. Because of the anger and the sadness and the guilt that are eating you inside now. Artemis would react the same way."

"Stop worrying for us and start worrying for you for a change."

"I'm fine."

"No," Rei said quietly, looking at her with warm eyes, "You're not."

Minako averted her eyes, tears accumulating in her gaze once again. And Venus had literally abandoned her, now of all time. She didn't know how to deal with the situation, with Rei, not when she was this exhausted and vulnerable, not when Rei was being so damn sweet, not when she was so near that Minako didn't know if she should run away or kiss her.

However the decision was taken from her hands when Rei tenderly took her hand before enveloping her in a protective embrace that was as strong as it was warm. She touched her like Minako were a tiny fragile little thing, and the idol would certainly have protested if it didn't feel so good to be against Rei, in her arms, to feel her need to protect her, comfort her, reassure her. Everything felt so natural, so simple, and maybe it was that she really was tired, maybe it was because of the memories or of the way Rei played with her hair, but suddenly Minako burst into tears and couldn't stop crying against Rei's shoulder for a few long minutes, to her utter embarrassment.

Rei kept playing with her hair, holding her against her body, whispering soft words of reassurance in her ear. It was soothing, strangely so.

Her sobs left Minako even more exhausted, and she could feel the same tiredness in Rei who was more or less keeping her on her feet. She pitifully sniffed and dried her eyes like a child, trying not to die of mortification and not to show that she was pushing her control at its max to avoid crying again.

"It was a beautiful wedding," Minako softly said, trying to put them back on neutral territory.

But her voice was raspy and the atmosphere strange.

"Yes. Well, besides Usa's mom's interpretation of that silly song."

"Oh my god, yes, besides that," Minako groaned. "She is uh… not the type of persons I'm at ease with."

"Ah, you too?"

"She's overwhelming."

"Shacho is, too. Aren't you used to it?"

"Shacho is distantly overwhelming. And I know how he is, I understand it. Mrs Tsukino is unpredictable"

"Ah."

There was an awkward silence. They always were more at ease with each other in time of crisis. Minako knew what she wanted, but she didn't know how to put it into words without making the situation even more strange. She didn't want Rei to think of her differently… Well, Minako never did well with rejections.

"You should go to sleep," Rei invited quietly.

"You can't go home at this hour, your apartment is too far away and you won't find a taxi."

"I'll be fine."

"You should stay. Here. With me." Could she be more awkward than that? "I… I mean I don't really want to be alone and to worry about you until you're home and… and the more logical thing to do for us is to sleep together. And I really shouldn't have said that like that because it really sounded like an improper proposition."

Rei chucked lightly.

"Yeah."

"Sorry," said Minako sheepishly. "Wasn't intended."

"Yes, well, I guess awkwardness is bound to happen now and then now."

"Why? Are you going to question everything I say in search of dirty things or allusions? Don't worry, I'll make myself obvious."

"You're back on your feet, I see."

"… Hum, I know you barely remember anything, but stop provoking this kind of memories, ok, Reiko?"

"What? What did I do?"

"Let's just say that Mars said that to me once, and it was in _other_ circumstances."

"Oh Kami, I don't want to know."

Minako laughed at Rei's red cheeks.

"No, you don't," she said, before inviting Rei to follow her to the bedroom. "I wouldn't want your pure mind being corrupted by all these passionate memories."

"That's so gallant of you."

"Now who's flirting?"

They changed and went to bed quietly, neither knowing what to say. Minako let the lamp on for a little while before turning it off. In the emotional state she was in, being in the dark was not something she wanted, but she didn't want Rei to know of her childish fear nor did she want to bother her with the light. And so she stayed frozen under the cover, trying to let her exhaustion lull her to sleep, when the sudden hand on her limb nearly made her jump out of her skin.

"Sorry," Rei whispered, not moving her hand. "Are you alright?"

"Yes."

But her voice came out way too tiny. She didn't dare do anything when Rei got closer to her and put her arms around her middle. Minako could feel her body against hers and her breath on her neck, just before Rei moved to place a little kiss on the skin of her jaw before lying back down behind her.

"Sleep, Mina."

And Minako couldn't answer, too stunned to do anything but close her eyes and fall into the warmth and protection of Rei's presence. She could breathe again.

She would ponder on all of that after a few hours of sleep, and deal with all the consequences of what had happened then.

There was one thing that stayed on her mind however. Rei knew, and was here, in her bed, holding her in her arms. Rei knew and apparently they were still friends. There were even signs in her feelings that Minako had felt before but never with as much clarity, things she had been searching for for years. The future had suddenly become highly exciting.

She fell asleep without fear, hoping the nightmares would stay away for the night.


	8. Overprotective

**That one is just for fun, nothing too serious.**** I think it's the first time I include Ami and Makoto in this series of oneshots. Exterior POV and all that, you know.**

**I just like the fact that Minako is greyer than the rest of them (and Ami is too in a way). And I don't know why, but I see Venus a little as a slightly disturbed child. Hey, the girl has lived a little too much sad and hard trials in her very short life to just walk out of it unscathed (she even died after all). But no worries, she's fine there. **

**So there, another experiment: what would happen if somebody threatened Rei or Minako? How would they react?  
**

* * *

**Overprotective**

_**By youte**_

"What the hell? Rei!"

Makoto jumped to her feet and quickly followed her friend toward the torii. The 16 years old priestess suddenly had a dark expression and an even darker aura, and Makoto didn't understand the unexpected change. All was going nicely this afternoon… The sun was bright, a few people were at the shrine, enough to keep priests occupied but too few to prevent Rei from talking to her visiting friends.

"Rei?" asked Ami worriedly. "What is it?"

"This man. There. His aura… I know him…"

"You know a lot of people," said Makoto, still following her.

"No. Not like him. He's… dark. Evil. I recognized him when he passed near me. His eyes… he's here because of me. I know where I've seen him before!"

Her eyes brightened, just before darkening abruptly, and she ran to catch up with the man that had turned in the shrine's garden.

Ami and Makoto exchanged glances. They had rarely seen Rei this tense. And it had never been because of nothing.

"Hey! Stop there!"

The man complied easily and turned calmly. There was an aloof smirk on his face, his eyes were dark. Cold. Makoto could feel the negative energy coming from him in waves. The trees whispered to her to be cautious. This man was dangerous.

She placed herself besides Rei, feeling Ami do the same. They may not be senshi anymore, but they still watched each other's back if necessary.

"Who are you?" Rei asked, her voice strong.

"Just a tourist."

"No, you're not. Why are you there?"

"Why, isn't it obvious? I thought that you had the Sight, miss Hino?"

Makoto tensed. He was really here to see Rei.

"I know you were there last week at the hotel. I think I'm going to call the police."

He laughed. The sound was chilling.

"You didn't see me, but you recognize my aura. Good. You see, I was rather angry that my plan failed. These roses would have been delivered to her if it weren't for you and your damn sixth sense."

Rei's anger was increasing. Makoto never saw her this enraged. There was something powerful in her aura, something as bright as it was scorching.

She didn't know what they were talking about, and yet she knew. After all, there was only one of their friends that lived in a hotel. And thinking of it, Rei's reactions were only this strong when a certain idol was concerned.

"Who are you?" asked Rei one more time.

"Someone that has an unfinished business to attend with our common friend."

"You'll go nowhere but to a police station. These roses could have killed her."

"Exactly. But don't worry, I'll find another way. From what I've seen, Minako Aino has a lot of weaknesses these days, weaknesses that she didn't have back in the day. I mean, Sailor V was untouchable, even if I had discovered who she was in reality. Just a frail kid. Really, imagine my anger when she beat me without even making an effort to do so. But I had two years in prison to think about it. Revenge is a sweet thing."

"You won't touch her," warned Rei, shaking with anger.

He just smiled.

"Of course, I will touch her, miss Hino. She doesn't have her powers anymore, does she? She's just an ordinary child. Well, not really ordinary, but… I doubt she can do anything against me now. And believe me," he said with a sick light in his eyes, "I'll find a way to play with her first."

He found himself violently pinned to a tree, Rei's arm against his throat. But he didn't move despite the fact that he was taller and stronger than the miko, and Makoto found it completely worrying. Ami looked nervous too.

"If you go anywhere near her, I'll make sure you won't see sunlight until your last day!"

"Such fire in your eyes… You and her are very close friends, huh? I know you spend a lot of time with each other. That's surprising, she isn't the type to attach herself to people."

"You know _nothing_ of her," Rei said, her voice colder than Makoto ever heard it.

It was frightening to see Rei like that, to feel her aura so flared up.

But the guy just smiled, looking at the girl with eyes as empty as his soul.

"I know at least a thing. A very important thing. I know how to get to her without even approaching her. And then she will be so preoccupied that it will be a piece of cake to kill her. Or maybe kidnap her to enjoy myself a little. She's grown up to be quite the –"

If Rei hadn't hit him between the legs, Makoto surely would have. With a lot more strength. Too bad the miko was nearer. Ami looked as worried as she was angry.

"You won't even see her again," Rei declared. "Ami, call the police."

"It's too late, miss Hino. Don't you want to know what his Sailor V's only weakness?"

Rei ignored him while Ami took her cell phone from her pocket. And during these only little distracting seconds, the guy pushed himself out of Rei's grip and squeezed his hand around her throat.

"Rei!"

But Makoto couldn't go far. She was stopped by a weird black wave that settled around Rei like a dark aura.

"It's simple," the man said, ignoring Rei's struggles for air, "her only weakness, miss Hino, is _you_."

The black aura seemed to crawl into Rei's skin and disappear. The man smiled and let her go, watching her drop lifelessly to the ground.

"Rei!"

"Ami, take care of her!" Makoto asked while running behind the asshole.

He was fast, but Makoto couldn't let him go. She didn't even know what he had done to Rei, and she really didn't want to think what he planned to do to Minako.

She took a shortcut, thinking it was good that she had spend so much time here this last year, and found herself only a meter behind the guy.

But she only succeeded in brushing her fingers against his jacket. That was when she felt it. A card. She took it just before he disappeared in an alleyway.

"Fuck!"

At least, she had his identity.

But it wasn't nearly enough to ease her anger.

Minako was going to _kill_ them if Rei…

Makoto ran as fast as she could to the shrine. She found Ami at the same spot where she had left her. The genius was holding Rei against her, a very worried look on her face.

"I don't know what he did to her," she said, worry covering her eyes. "She doesn't seem aware of her surroundings and she has a very high fever. This isn't normal, Mako."

"So we can't take her to a hospital?"

"No. But if she stays like this…"

Makoto didn't need the end of this sentence. She took Rei in her arms and tried to ignore the expression of pain in these half opened eyes that didn't even acknowledge her.

"I'm going to take her to her room. You should call Minako."

* * *

She knew something was wrong. Terribly wrong. She could feel it.

So when her phone came alive she didn't let it ring two times, and her anxiety and her fear almost physically hurt her.

"Yes?"

Her voice was shaking. Like her hand. She had never prayed so much in so little time.

"_Minako, it's Makoto. Are you busy?"_

"No. What happened? Where are you?"

Makoto hesitated. Not good. Not good at all.

"_You should come to the shrine."_

Minako's legs gave out. The shrine…

"Wh…what happened?" God, she had to control herself. She couldn't keep stammering like this. "Is everybody alright?"

"_Not really. It's Rei. She's… hurt. Or sick. We aren't sure and –"_

Minako didn't let her finish. She closed her phone, jumped to her feet, took a slumbering Artemis under her arm and run as fast as she could.

It couldn't be happening. No, it couldn't. Not Rei. Rei had to be fine. Rei was too precious to not be just fine.

Minako would die if she lost Rei. Why things couldn't stay just fine? They were happy now. It had taken them months, but Minako was not scared anymore and Rei was… Rei was…

Perfect.

Granted, their first kiss happened only a few weeks before, but still. Their new relationship was going great.

Minako arrived at the shrine in record time, and burst into Rei's room, out of breath and shaking. Ami and Makoto looked at her with incredulity and surprise. It was the first time they saw Minako so out of her ordinary perfection, and certainly the first time that somebody established such a record. Barely 15 minutes had passed since Minako had been on the phone with Makoto.

She let go of Artemis and looked at her friends before immediately kneeling besides Rei's futon. The girl was pale, sweaty, her eyes looking at nothing but shining with tears. She looked sick and scared.

Something in Minako's heart broke, and another thing froze in dangerous ice.

She tentatively brushed her fingers against Rei's skin. It was clammy and burning.

"Reiko," she whispered.

Rei closed her eyes and whimpered softly.

Minako forced herself to swallow her burning feelings and stood.

"What happened to her?" she asked Makoto and Ami, in a cold voice that covered her fear and her pain.

Looking disturbed, Ami and Makoto exchanged glances before the first one explained the situation. It only served to hurt Minako more.

It was because of her… that Rei was hurt.

Because of her.

"I remember him," she whispered, almost against her will. "I helped the police capture him when I was V." She closed her eyes. And when she opened them, they were colder than Venus' ones. "I'll find him."

"Do you know what he did to her?"

"I'm not sure. But I'll find him."

"Mina, it could be dangerous," Artemis softly reminded her.

Minako took the card from Makoto and smirked when she saw an address. She looked at Rei one last time, heard her whimpering, with pain or fear, she wasn't sure.

Somebody had to pay for this. Dearly.

She left without a word.

Artemis tried to call her, but she didn't listen to him.

"Jupiter!"

Makoto nodded and went after her enraged leader.

Ami tried to reassure Rei, whispering soothing words to her. But the girl seemed to be worse now that Minako had left the room. It was strange how she had quieten down when the idol was there, how she seemed to recognize Minako's presence without really acknowledging her.

"Are you worried about Minako, Artemis?"

"I'm not sure… Maybe I'm more worried about what she could do to this man. She hasn't the protection of her transformation anymore. If she does something to him…"

"Makoto will be with her. To protect her." Ami looked at Rei when she felt her shook violently. Her condition was getting worse. "I hope she won't stop Venus too soon," she whispered.

After all, she would love to see him suffer a bit.

A lot.

* * *

It hadn't been locked

Too bad for him.

Makoto just followed Minako. She had stopped trying to reason with her a while ago. The idol wasn't answering her anyway. She was so furious Makoto was almost sure she could see a golden aura encircling her body, but it was (hopefully) her imagination. She had never seen Minako like that, not really. It was… impressive. There was a power, a strength radiating from her that reminded strongly Makoto of Venus.

But it was impossible, right? Minako couldn't transform anymore.

The guy surely didn't expect Minako to just turn up at his apartment, even less this quickly. He began to smile, but couldn't say a thing as the smirk was ripped from his face by Minako's fist. Makoto jumped, eyes round with surprise. She quickly closed the door behind her and looked at the apparently fragile idol glaring with a burning coldness at the man holding his bleeding nose.

"Remember me?" she said, her voice low and strong, laced with hate.

Makoto couldn't help but shudder. Surely this couldn't be the same Minako Aino all Japan adored…

"You were prettier when you were blond."

He straightened himself up slowly, but Minako visibly didn't want to lose time. When he tried to hit her, she side stepped, caught his arm and forced him to turn over before pinning him against his fridge with more strength that Makoto would have thought. The dark power appeared again, but Minako was prepared. It only seemed to bang on something around Minako, something warm, something luminous.

"What are you trying to do?" Minako sneered. "I know you, remember? You can't affect me, remember? If Rei had known about your capacity, you couldn't have taken her by surprise and you would be in jail right now."

"So, you've seen your little friend?" he said, just before crying out when Minako forced his face against the fridge.

"Heal her."

"No."

"You don't want to see me angry."

He tried to free himself but couldn't even move. Makoto took a guilty pleasure at seeing him beginning to panic.

"What… How…?"

A scary smirk crossed Minako's angelic face.

"You have you gift. I have mine. And let me tell you something. It's always a very bad idea to make a child of Venus mad. Especially when emotions are what fuel her strength and her gifts. _Heal her_."

"Never."

There was a sickening sound, and the man cried out once more.

"I can do the same to your other shoulder, I can do the same to all your bones, I have a bodyguard that loves to teach me things. You really shouldn't have come after my friends. Now, you are going to heal Rei if you want me to let go of you."

He didn't say anything. Makoto was worried. That guy obviously didn't know what was good for him.

Minako threw him on the ground and kicked him violently in the face. Makoto was beginning to feel a little ill at ease.

"Heal her! _Now_!"

She put her foot on his throat, and he couldn't do anything because of the pain of a dislocated shoulder, a broken nose, an appearing black eye and a hurt wrist.

"Hum, Minako, he needs to breathe, you know…" Makoto tentatively said before seeing the look Venus threw her way. "Never mind."

Note to self: _never_ get on Minako's bad side.

"Don't you want to live?" Minako asked the guy calmly.

Finally, red in the face, he barely nodded. His eyes turned suddenly black and he sighed.

"It's done."

Minako leaned over him and grabbed his collar.

"Is that the truth?"

"What do you think?" he spat.

"I hope, for your health, that she will be just fine and not suffer from any side effect, and I mean _any_. Don't ever come near one of my friends or near my family again. If you try anything, if you mention me or the girls, I'll find you, and I'll make your life a living hell before killing you. And don't you ever come near Hikawa Shrine or near Rei Hino again. If you only _think_ of her, I'll destroy you. Understood?"

He just looked at her with hate. She punched him in the face.

"Understood?!"

"Y – yes! Stop!"

"I called the police. Come on, Minako, we're leaving." Makoto took Venus by the wrist before she could do anything else. She didn't like the way the girl was shaking nor the look in her eyes. "We have to go, Minako. He's out, he isn't going anywhere! Come on!"

Finally Minako followed her out. When they were on the street, the sun above them and the soft wind playing with their hair, Minako just stopped, suddenly very pale, blood on her hand and her whole body trembling. She went to a garbage can, bent down and threw up.

Makoto grimaced and hesitated to go to her. She didn't know how Minako would react.

"Are you alright?" she asked her softly when the idol seemed better.

Minako just shrugged. She didn't look at her and called a taxi.

* * *

Minako washed herself up before entering Rei's room. She felt better now that she could see that the girl was fine.

"She still has a fever," Ami said softly. "But she is better."

"Thanks."

"Hum, is that blood?"

Minako looked at her shirt and reddened.

"Huh, it's nothing."

She just went to Rei's cupboard and searched for a second. With a white pullover in hand, she went again in the bathroom. Makoto frowned.

"Wasn't that hers?"

"Maybe."

"She has clothes in Rei's room now? And since when does she just help herself like that?"

"It's Minako," said Ami, like that could explain everything.

"Still, it's weird."

"What's weird?"

Makoto smiled upon hearing Rei.

"Hey. How are you?"

"I'm feeling… sick. What happened?"

"That guy had a power apparently. Don't worry about it."

"And Minako?"

"She's here. She's huh… fine."

"Oh."

"You look tired. We're going to leave."

"Yeah, we'll come back tomorrow. Take care."

"Ok, thank you."

Minako came back, smiled and immediately went to Rei.

"Hey. It isn't serious to sleep at that time of the day, Mars Reiko," she said, too tenderly to be really teasing.

She softly caressed Rei's cheek and played with her hair, leaning over her to whisper something to her. Rei smiled and took her hand, visibly sleepy.

Ami and Makoto left the room in silence and retrieved their handbags from the kitchen before leaving the shrine.

"Since when are Rei and Minako so touchy-feely?" Makoto asked.

"I don't know. They always were closed to one another. Even when they were Senshi and despite their constant fights and competitions."

"Yeah, I know that, but I never saw Minako this… upset before. Nor this intimate with anybody other than Artemis."

"She's not when we're here, but she's more at ease with Rei, more free when she's here. They're really important for the other, I think. They understand and trust each other."

"You should have seen Minako at that guy's apartment. It was… scary. Really."

"I think that she's very protective towards Rei. And Rei was rather intimidating too."

"Isn't it a little weird? I mean, their relationship is hard to understand, even for us. Minako isn't the only one to be protective, Rei is, too. And these clothes –"

"They spend a lot of time with each other when Minako is in town. Maybe she sleeps at the shrine sometimes. Hotels must be pretty lonely."

"You know… now that I think of it… they're calmer these days when they're together than they were before. Like they're… on the same page."

"They talked to each other. Really talked. They needed it."

Makoto eyed her suspiciously.

"Ami… you know something?"

"What? No. About what?"

"Oh my god. You _know_ something!"

"No!"

"You can't lie! Tell me."

"No."

"Ami!"

"Rei could have my head."

"Come on, I'm their friend, too!"

"She didn't told me. I guessed."

"Guessed what exactly?"

"Makoto."

"You know, if I didn't know better, with what I know, the looks they throw each other, their similarities and differences, their mutual stubbornness, their way of communicating almost silently sometimes and to be completely at ease only with the other near them, the clothes and the protectiveness, I would think that they're… _Oh my god_!" She stopped suddenly, her wide eyes falling on Ami. "Oh. My. God."

"Mako," Ami began nervously.

"Rei and Minako? Rei and Minako?!"

"Mako, keep your voice down!"

"It's true!" A smile appeared on Makoto's face. "That's great!"

"You're not bothered by it?"

"Are you kidding?! Nobody sane would want them other than them."

"… You're lucky they're not here to hear that."

"Come on, they're so complicated and strong headed it's crazy! Since when? Since when do you know?"

"I don't know since when! I didn't ask them. Rei is very private, you know that."

"And very strict about men. Ah, no wonder!"

"And Minako is… is huh… Minako."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Guess she still has difficulty to really see us as friends."

"I suppose she still has troubles to adapt to that life. She has issues with trust. I think the fact that she's an idol and that she had not so long ago at least two big secrets to keep is a good explanation to that."

"Yeah. But she's there more often, and she's more and more herself. But back to the subject." She sighed. "I guess, Rei's being a senator's daughter and a miko and Minako being an idol, that they are to be really careful."

"They have to keep that secret. They don't need too much attention."

"After all that they have been through, they deserve peace and happiness."

"My thought exactly."

"So, how did you guess?"

"Oh, because of their interactions, mostly."

"They don't show it."

"No, of course not, but there are really subtle things that changed these last months. And…"

"What?"

"I called Rei three weeks ago. It was rather late, it was because she had left her history homework in my living room. Anyway she wasn't alone."

"It's getting interesting."

"I will not speculate about their private life."

"No. But I bet you already have analyzed all the clues!"

Ami reddened a bit.

"I didn't _analyze _it."

"So, what do you think?"

"I think that they love each other, and that it's all we need to know."

"Gossiping is fun. You know it. Minako's clothes were with Rei's clothes, in her cupboard. Minako was very at ease in Rei's room, and both of us, even if we have known Rei for a longer time, had only been there two times before today. Do you think Rei is that familiar with Minako's suites?"

Ami blushed even more at what Makoto was suggesting.

"I don't know," she mumbled.

"Come on. You said you noticed different things, Ami. I know what I think about that, and you?"

"I won't gossip about my friends' sexual life."

"Oh my god! So they have one!"

"Possible, _possible_ sexual life!"

"Too late, Ami! Situation, clues, conclusion!"

"It doesn't mean anything. They might only have sleepovers, you know."

"Well, anyway we can't say they don't move fast! It has only been nine months since we came back. They… well…"

Ami smiled when she saw Makoto reddening a little.

"We should stop speaking about that."

"Yes. Maybe we should."

"And we _can't_ tell Usagi."

"Oh no. That we can't." She sighed. "When I think Rei didn't even know Minako the first time they met… and that they passed their time to defy and fight each other over everything… That's so romantic! They're made for each other."

Ami laughed.

"That's true. Now hush."

"Yes, yes."

* * *

Minako brought a glass of water to Rei.

"Hey. Drink a little."

Rei sat and did as said before laying down. Minako frowned, tenderly running her fingers through the miko's hair.

"Your fever doesn't seem to –"

"I'll be fine. Stop worrying like that," whispered Rei, closing her eyes.

Minako glared at her, unhappy, before going to the bathroom to change. She put on her night clothes and went back in the room before shutting the light off. A presence startled her. She jumped, before recognizing the intruder and sighing.

"Artemis! You scared me!"

"Sorry," he whispered. "How is Rei?"

"Still a little sick. Her fever is still too high."

"Don't worry like that, Mina. She'll be fine."

"I… I don't like to see her sick like that."

"I know. It's just a fever, you know that."

She picked him up and brought him with her toward the futon. Then she put him on a fluffy pillow.

"Here."

"I could have walked, you know," Artemis said, amused.

"She's in mother hen mode," mumbled Rei. "It's new."

"Hey! I am not! And where do you think you're going?"

Rei stood up slowly.

"To the bathroom."

"You shouldn't be up!" Minako protested, following her.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not!"

"Kami, Artemis, help me!"

"What? Oh, Mina, let her be."

"But…"

Rei raised an eyebrow at Minako, just before entering the bathroom.

"You don't intend to come with me?" Minako sighed and crossed her arms while Rei closed the door, but she didn't move. "And stop waiting for me!"

Minako came back in the room where Artemis was already half asleep.

"She's frustrating!"

"Ah, finally you know what I endure every time you are sick. Especially when you were younger."

Minako glared at him, but luckily for the guardian, Rei came back at that moment. She was near the door when she paled and stumbled suddenly. Minako passed an arm around her middle and helped her to stay on her feet.

"Reiko!"

"I'm fine. I'm just… dizzy."

Minako didn't let go of her until she was safely in her futon. Then she laid down beside her and gazed at her worryingly.

"Better?"

"Yeah. What the hell did he do to me anyway?" Rei asked softly.

"He has the gift to poison one's soul with his darkness. But you're fine now."

The room was only lit by three candles. Minako took Rei's hand and pulled her softly against her. Rei complied and shifted so she could be comfortably embraced by the other girl, her head just under Minako's chin. It wasn't the first time they slept together, given their busy way of life they liked to spend as much time as they could together.

The idol began playing with her hair almost immediately, a habit she seemed to love. Not that Rei was complaining, it was rather soothing.

"Mina?" she whispered.

"What?"

"Why is there blood on your clothes in my bathroom?"

"It's nothing."

"You're not hurt. What did you do?"

"He isn't dead if that's what is worrying you."

"What?! Because he _could_ be dead? What did you do?"

"Nothing. I… talked to him and asked him to heal you. That's all. Now he's in prison. Where he should be. Artemis verified it."

"You _asked_? What is the definition of this word for you?"

"What? Because you talk to a lot of people while pushing them against a tree?"

"I didn't have blood on me!"

"He was being arrogant and wasn't collaborating. I was helping him to see his best interests."

"You were… Kami."

"What? He's alive. A little worse for wear, but believe me, he deserves more pain. He's lucky I don't have access to my powers anymore."

"Great, I have a violent and deranged girl in my bed."

"I am not deranged. He was dangerous. Is dangerous. You knew it too."

"Yeah, I know. But it was reckless to go to him like that."

Minako tensed beneath Rei. But Artemis's voice interrupted them.

"There wasn't time to do anything else. It was the only way to force him to heal you before it was too late. Minako knew him and knew how to counter his capacity. And besides, believe me, there's nothing that can stop her when she's this angry and worried."

"Artemis, not helping!" Minako whispered upon hearing the last bit.

"My bad."

"You were under the influence of strong emotions, it is hardly –"

"Can you stop questioning my actions? I am still the leader, in case you have forgotten."

"Fine."

"Fine."

The silence was deafening.

"Minako?" Rei whispered.

"What?"

"Thank you. For saving my life."

"We're even now. But if you want, you can still repay me. Sing with me on my next concert."

"Nope. Stop trying to take advantage of the situation."

"Hmm, I could think of better –"

"Don't finish that sentence."

"Too bad."

Rei chuckled before raising her head to meet Minako's eyes.

"Weird day, huh?"

"Yep. Another one. But my life has always been weird."

"Mine is way weirder since you came into it."

"But more interesting."

"Maybe. But weirder. Stop doing that!" Rei complained when Minako checked again the level of her fever. "It's really annoying."

"Hush, it's for your own good."

"I'll be fine tomorrow," Rei sighed.

"But you're not now."

Rei saw so much worry and fear in Minako's eyes that she couldn't help but feel impossibly moved. She just wanted to see her smile again.

"I'll admit that your surprising overprotective side is kind of cute."

"I'm not overprotective," Minako mumbled.

"Yes, you are."

"You're annoying now."

"In a cute way?"

"No."

"You must be rubbing off on me."

"Hey!"

"Do you have to work tomorrow?"

"I have to see Shacho. And I have homework to do and a song to finish. But I can do that from here, if you want."

"I wouldn't want to keep number one Japan's top teen idol from work."

"Stop being this ironic about my job. It's great."

"No comment."

"You better," Minako smiled, just before raising her head a little to kiss Rei's lips softly.

Rei didn't let her stop there. She put an hand on the back of her neck and tenderly deepened the kiss, letting all her emotions of the day fly out of her mind during that delicious moment.

A minute or so later, a sleepy voice made itself known and broke their little bubble.

"I'm right here, you know."

The girls stopped kissing and Minako giggled.

"Now don't be grumpy, Arty."

"I'm not. It's just disturbing to be as happy for you as I am and at the same time feeling like my little girl has suddenly grown up too fast for me to see."

"Ow, that's so cute," Rei noted with a smile in her voice, while being securely held in Minako's arms once more.

"I love you too, Artemis," Minako confessed softly.

"Tsk. Not hearing you. I'm sleeping now."

"Do you think we should tell him about him talking in his sleep?" whispered Rei to Minako.

"Nope. Too much fun."

"You're evil."

"Just a little mischievous. And you adore me."

"You wish."

"Hey. Being sick doesn't excuse you of everything, you know."

Rei just smiled and closed her eyes, feeling warm and dizzy. It wasn't only because of the fever.

"Sleep now," Minako said like she could feel it. "Goodnight."

"Sweet dreams."

Rei was falling asleep when Minako's soft and hesitant voice brought her again to alertness.

"Reiko?"

"Hmm?"

"If… if you don't feel well during the night, you'll wake me?"

Rei grinned.

"Yes."

Minako quietly sighed and shifted a little before kissing Rei's forehead.

"Goodnight."

"Mina?"

"What?"

"You're really overprotective."

"Shut up. I have extenuating circumstances."

"Yes. I know. Sorry."

"You're forgiven."

"Too kind."

"I know."

Rei wanted to have the last word, but she really was exhausted. So she kept quiet, enjoying the way Minako was still running her fingers over her forehead and her hair.

She felt well, and loved. When she was in the presence of Minako, she felt… right. Complete.

And safe.

She wondered if Minako was feeling the same when she was in her arms.

She hoped she was feeling this beautiful thing.

It felt like being home.


	9. Home

**Home**

They were like sharks.

Rei's eyes narrowed as she looked at her television. The sharks were surrounding the idol who was protected by her bodyguards and managers. They shouted their questions, again and again, without a care about the pain they were causing. Of course, it was them that had participated in the doing of Minako Aino's extraordinary career. Or maybe these reporters were really sharks and the ones that helped and followed the young woman usually weren't there today, harassing her with terrible words.

_Minako, is your past the strength behind __your career?_

_Has this tragedy influenced your music?_

_Do you think that your childhood is the cause of your –_

Rei put the sound off after that and looked at the idol on the screen. Minako walked in silence, head high and apparently unaffected by all this agitation around her. But Rei knew her girlfriend better than that. She could easily see that Minako was a lot of things but certainly not calm.

After putting the TV off, Rei sighed and looked at the night falling. This day had been hell, and she could only imagine what it had been for Minako. She glared at the magazine on her coffee table. Its title was partly what raised such a storm of paparazzi and journalists around Japan's top singer.

_Minako Aino: her terrible past!_

Rei took the magazine and threw it in the trashcan. Really, how could people be this insensitive? Inside, the article was explaining how when she had been a kid Minako Aino had been called Minako Sington, and how the little girl of 4 had seen one night her parents be killed by a drunk robber armed with a kitchen knife. How the child had spent the rest of the night and half of the next day with the bloody corpses of her parents in the locked kitchen of their house. Then it went on about her time in a hospital where the traumatized girl hadn't said one word and in the orphanage where she had been more or less put aside because of her panic attacks. She had been adopted later by the Aino, an odd couple, the man an ex cop then musician and the woman an artist who dedicated her time to distressed children. The Aino had taken the girl in and with their patience and own weirdness, with their love and time, Minako had healed and grown up well.

Rei hadn't known a thing about this story. She had known that the Aino had been killed in a car accident when Minako had been 12, leaving her with their estate and with their friends, the Saitou. She hadn't known that Minako had been adopted by them. And even less why. Minako had never said a thing about all that, like she had never explained the violent nightmares she had sometimes after which she always insisted that Rei stayed awake with her through the rest of the night.

With a heavy sigh, Rei sat down on the couch of her little apartment. She had lived there for a year and she liked it, even if at first she had missed Hikawa a lot. Of course, when Minako was in town, Rei sometimes found herself spending nights at her girlfriend's hotel suite. Despite Rei and their friends' suggestions, Minako had always refused to buy a place of her own. She had proclaimed that she was too often on the road and that she loved hotels. That, and she was often enough at Rei's, but of course only a few people knew that.

Again, Rei took her phone in the hope of reaching Minako. And again, she got no answer.

"Where are you, Mina?" she whispered anxiously.

She didn't like being here, not knowing how was Minako and not being at her side when she _knew_ her girlfriend needed her.

A sound behind the door alerted her. Minako entered silently into the apartment, her face pale and her eyes dark. She closed the door behind her and let her back rest against it, her gaze on the floor. To Rei's eyes, she looked tiny and fragile, broken. The woman went to the idol and gently took her handbag from her before putting it on the shelf near them. Then she took her cold hand in hers and guided her to the couch.

When she raised her eyes she saw tears on the idol's cheeks. Her hand was trembling in hers.

"Minako?" Rei whispered.

"I… I just…"

Rei took the sobbing woman in her arms without saying anything. She just held her tightly with sadness and pain, having never seen Minako this disturbed.

"I… I'm sorry…"

"It's okay," Rei soothed. "It's okay. It's just us now, this day is over."

"I… I'm so sorry. I – I wanted to tell you… I'm sorry I never told you before – before…"

"No, it's nothing."

"No, it's not," Minako sobbed. "I never told you and – and now…"

"Come on, don't think about that. And you know what I think of journalists…"

"Yeah, I – I agree. Can I Crescent Beam them all to - tomorrow?"

"Yes. Now calm down, shshsh, calm down."

She didn't. All the stress and the pent up emotions of the day seemed to have undone her. Rei used her right hand to undo Minako's hairdressing. She put a tender kiss on her forehead and gently pulled back from her.

"Have you eaten?"

Minako shook her head.

"And earlier in the day?"

"A little."

"You should eat something."

"I'm not hungry," she sobbed.

Rei knew it wasn't the time to argue.

"Come on, you need to sleep a little."

"No."

"You're exhausted."

"I…"

"I'll stay with you."

Minako let her guide her in her bedroom. She didn't say anything and kept crying silently while Rei removed her shoes, skirt and shirt before dressing her into an old and long t-shirt. Once under the cover, she snuggled against Rei who took her in her arms and who tried to sooth her with tender kisses and gestures.

Maybe feeling better in the closed bedroom only lit by the lamp, under the heavy blanket and in the arms of her girlfriend, Minako quieted down after a little while, exhausted.

"I hate them," she whispered with a tired voice.

"Tomorrow you'll be yourself again and you'll destroy them with your usual charm."

"I'll put them at my feet."

"That's better."

"Or I could stay right there."

"You'll go crazy even before noon."

"Not if you're with me to distract me."

Rei smiled and caressed Minako's cheeks, erasing the tears there.

"You look like a clown with your make-up ruined like that."

Minako hide her face onto her shoulder with a little whine.

"Rei!"

"Sorry," the woman said sheepishly. "Come on, I'm sorry." Worried, Rei held Minako a little more tightly. "Hey, it's nothing. You're beautiful anyway, you know. Come on, look at me."

"You have no delicacy sometimes, Rei Hino," Minako complained quietly, raising her head.

She sniffed, and Rei grimaced.

"I know. But you're so touchy."

"Not true."

"So true."

Rei kissed her tenderly before moving so she could look at her in the face.

"Are you okay?"

Tears welled up into Minako's eyes.

"I was stupid."

"What?" Rei asked softly.

"I was so stupid to think that – that this story wouldn't reappear one day wh – while my career is going so well."

"Hey, you can't control the press and their avidity."

"I – I don't know. And I should have told you before about it, because… now, now you've learned it because of this stupid revue when it should have been me telling you about my parents. All four of them. And… and it's not because I don't trust you that I didn't say anything about it, because I trust you, but it's just… It's just that I don't like having to think about it or to remember and…"

"I know – Mina, look at me. I know you trust me, you don't need to tell met that, because I know you and we wouldn't be together if we didn't trust each other. I know you would have talked to me eventually, and that you will, when you're ready. You don't need to explain, and you don't need to apologize."

"I love you."

"And I love you."

Minako sniffed and tried to stop her tears.

"I'm so tired."

"You can sleep. No one is going to bother you here."

"My manager –"

"Your phone is on mute and I put mine off. It's just us tonight. You'll face the world tomorrow, for now you can let go."

Rei had thought Minako to be asleep, but then the idol moved a little and opened her eyes again.

"One day they'll know about us too," she whispered.

Rei nodded.

"Then we will have to take the first step."

A little hesitant smile appeared on Minako's face.

"You would talk to the press about our relationship?"

"No," Rei protested with a disgusted face. "_You_ will."

"Alone?"

"It's not my job."

"It's _our_ relationship."

"I'm sure you'll know how to announce it with your usual style and without my presence."

A mischievous glint in her eyes, Minako nodded.

"I could throw the information at the end of an interview and leave like that, wouldn't it be fun?"

"I'm sure it will be."

"Rei?"

"What?"

"You know, about… about this conversation we had once…"

"Huh… you know, we had a few conversations since we met, couldn't you be more precise?"

"I'm getting there."

"I'm relieved," Rei teased with a smile, putting a lock of Minako's hair behind her ear. "So, what was this conversation?"

"I'm getting a little old to live only in hotels, and… and I'm almost always here anyway and… well… I could live here?"

"You want us to live together? You didn't want to before now."

"I don't… really know how it is to… have a home. Even with my adoptive parents I never really felt at home, I loved them and I felt safe with them but it never felt like home. And because of that I was anxious to live with you. But I think that, you know, with you, it's going to be different because when I'm here I feel well and… So, what do you say?"

"We can't live here together."

"What?"

"It's too little, and not enough secured. You'll need a room for your clothes and a room to work on your music. This apartment was mine, not ours." Rei smiled. "I think we should buy a place together."

Minako beamed.

"Really? When?"

"I don't know," Rei chuckled. "Soon, I think. We have to find something before buying it, you know."

"We'll need a fireplace for you," Minako said while inviting herself in Rei's arms before kissing her. Then she put her head under Rei's shin and sighed contently. "Home," she whispered.

Rei smiled and kissed her head.

"How does it sound?"

"Perfect."

They stayed like that for a while and, just as Rei was falling asleep, Minako put her hand on her shoulder and shook her slightly.

"Reiko?"

"What?" Rei mumbled without opening her eyes.

"I'm hungry."

With a little laugh, Rei sat down and nodded, relieved to see Minako back to herself.

"You're going to have dinner with me?" Minako asked with childish hope.

As if Rei would refuse her anything tonight.

"Of course."

"We'll have what I want?"

Rei let her took her hand and lead her toward the little kitchen.

"Okay."

"Chicken and curry rice?"

"Fine," Rei sighed with resignation.

"Chocolate for dessert?" Minako asked with a smile.

She knew full well that Rei was against chocolate before bed because it made Minako as talkative as a little child high on sugar. And then, there was only four ways to make her shut up. One was out, for Rei couldn't knock her out (and sometimes the temptation was _huge_). So it was either infuriate her, kiss her or…

"And after that," Minako whispered with this smile that Rei knew all too well. The idol linked her hands behind Rei's neck and pressed herself against her body. "Can I have you?"

Rei accepted her kiss and smiled.

"Nope."

"What?"

"You didn't ask nicely enough," she pouted.

"Oh," Minako smiled, before kissing her longer, hands playing with hair and skin that she knew by heart. Then she put their foreheads together, eyes shining with love. "Was it nicely enough?"

"Not sure."

The next kiss led to another, and another, hands wandering more boldly. When they separated, their breathing heavier, Rei found out that she had somehow lost her shirt in the process.

She raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend.

"You've always been sneaky."

As she let one of her hand caressing Rei's stomach, Minako smiled smugly:

"You know, we could forget about the chocolate."

She kissed Rei again and moaned when her girlfriend's lips found her throat then her earlobe.

"We could skip the chicken and rice too," Rei suggested in her ear.

Minako was too happy to obliged and pushed Rei toward the bedroom before locking their lips together again. They fell onto the bed together and Minako smiled.

"We'll need a new bed in our home."

"What's wrong with my bed?"

The other smirked.

"Too small," she stated, before pushing Rei down and kissing her, her hands working on releasing the woman of her pants. "You know, we'll need another thing in –"

"Later," Rei whispered before reversing their positions.

Minako moaned quietly in Rei's mouth but she didn't protest.

If the past was behind her or would be when she'd find the strength to let it go, the future was indeed awaiting them.

And Minako knew that, sooner or later, they would be free of all their demons and would live the life they had always dreamed of. She looked forward to have a home again.

But for now, she was more than happy to be where she was.

_


	10. Anniversary

_That's the alternative ending of _Flashforward, _a fic that maybe one day I'll find the courage to adapt in English while improving the story in itself_. _For the ones that follow _Lineage_ I'm still trying to find the time to work on the last chapter._

**

* * *

**

**Anniversary**

_**By youte**_

"_Promise me that if it happens, you'll live. That you'll__ keep going. That you'll find happiness again. Promise me."_

Death was something strange.

Cold. Mysterious. Terrifying. Unknown and inevitable. Some sought it when others strove to escape it.

Minako Aino knew these two feelings. She was the only one to know intimately death, because she was the only one who had come back. Therefore she knew that death was not always inevitable.

No, death wasn't.

On the other hand, destiny, that bitch, destiny was inevitable. Unfeeling, unfair, rough and inescapable.

Happy anniversary.

Happy, happy, happy.

She could have sworn that something, somewhere, was singing a song.

Such a joyful tune.

Destiny was dancing, and the soft air against her skin was scorching, and destiny was laughing, and she was barely more than a ghost.

Minako Aino, who personified the goddess of love and the warrior of light, only had hate in her heart, and her soul had known only agony for too long now. She hated life, the thought was in her mind, such a clear and distant thought, she hated life. She hated the injustice, and hated above all destiny.

What had they done that was so bad?

Why?

Beautifully tragic anniversary.

It could have been a wonderful song.

But the only music she had played and the only song she had sung since her half had been stolen from her had been a silent one, a private one, inside of her broken heart, inside of her pitiful, pitiful self. Inside of her tears.

No more music for her, no more concert, no more anything. Not since that day.

Despite everything they had done to stop it, that day had come.

Because you couldn't stop destiny from happening. You accepted it.

Only Minako wasn't one and had never been one to just accept, just bend to rules that didn't agree with her.

The sun was setting. The ring from her phone broke the silence, as it often did. She didn't answer it, she almost never did. She watched the pale sunlight kiss the European roofs before disappearing, and she watched, without a reaction, without truly feeling anything but the relief to know that it would all end soon.

She was that light that unflappable time was erasing so easily, slowly, so slowly that human awareness couldn't realize it before it was too late. Before the golden light was only a vague memory.

Maybe it was what she already was, a vague memory. Years of celebrity, and a year of being away from everything, from everyone. A young woman with a broken heart, a broken, broken woman. That was what they all were surely saying, thinking, a second per day, per month, per trimester maybe, when her name came in conversations, in minds.

The loss had broken her, they were saying, with somber eyes and disgusting knowing nods, it was sad, a tragedy, the star had fallen, the star had disappeared, the star had died with her love.

Oh, how true love was beautiful. How it could shine so brightly.

How it could bury you in its cold shadow when the light was gone.

Happy, happy, terrible anniversary.

She raised her glass in a bitter and trembling toast. The last of champagne disappeared, and the crystal met the ground and broke in dozens of little pieces near her feet with a clear and worrying sound.

That would be the last music she would ever create.

The last sunrays caught the pieces of glass, bright flash of pure light, and it was gone.

A year exactly.

A year that Rei had been taken away from her.

Despite the vision, despite their caution, they had been unable to stop destiny from having what it wanted. You couldn't counteract your own future.

No, you couldn't. It hadn't stopped them from trying.

And failing, so miserably.

When Minako had felt that horrible pain and that violent emptiness filling her heart, she had known even before reaching the door of their home that she was too late. She had found Rei in their living room, and Rei had never again looked at her with her beautiful eyes, because her eyes had been open and empty, Rei had never laughed again or talked with her again because her soft and warm voice had died with her, Rei had never kissed her again because her lips had frozen with her breath.

Rei had died in spite of everything, and Minako was alive when she had been supposed to die at fourteen. And sometimes, during her worse moments of loneliness, the woman who had once been an idol surprised herself with thoughts as terrible as attractive.

Impossible to escape them in the silence of her empty flat. Impossible, because they were so sneaky, beautifully shaped and different from the nightmares, from the pain, that terrible, terrible pain.

Wouldn't it have been better if she had stayed dead? If she had never known the depth of her capacity to feel? The power of love inside of her heart? The potential for greatness, for achievement in happiness and in that wonderful emotion she had truly been the master of? Wouldn't it have been better if she had never been aware of it? Of that gift from her venusian heritage?

Yes, yes, emptiness would have been better, ignorance would have been better, death would have been better, anything but that feeling, anything but that suffering, that miserable pain that just wouldn't go away, not since that day, never since that day.

But during those excruciating moments, she thought of her twelve years with Rei at her side, of the joy and the peace, the love, and she didn't regret anything anymore.

And the pain would again increase then, and she could only curse her gift, her capacity of feeling more, more powerfully and more deeply than everybody on this planet, because that suffering wasn't only emotional, it was physical, it was all of it and she couldn't take it anymore.

She was the warrior of love and of light, she had been a Senshi, but she was only human.

A year. A year.

Horrible anniversary.

To continue alone was the worst punishment life could have thrown at her. She couldn't understand. Why Rei. Why her. Why them, why, why, why.

It was hurtful, life was cold, empty, it was torture. Without Rei, it was hell. To have to continue that life without her soul-mate, it meant only pain, fear, despair for the avatar of Venus, and nobody could understand that, nobody.

No psychologist, no doctor, not even her friends, nobody, and nobody could help her, nobody understood, nobody could feel that, it was inhuman, it was extraordinary, it was abnormal, and it was hell.

Continue like this… to support this intense pain without going insane…

It was impossible.

The phone was alive again.

Minako had not set a foot on Japan since the burial, since she had said her last goodbye to Rei. She knew her friends, their friends, still hoped to help her, they were like this, despite the months, the year, despite the lack of result, they kept hoping, they loved her, and they hoped to make her come back to them, to teach her how to live again, how to heal.

It was futile, they couldn't help, they couldn't make the pain go away, they couldn't make Rei come back.

A year.

The pain. The loneliness. The despair.

She had tried, oh, God, Venus, Kami, she had tried. She really had.

But it was futile.

Minako didn't have the strength anymore, and time was taking away her light, her might, her life.

For without love, without light, the child of Venus couldn't survive.

_Promise me._

She really had tried.

_Promise me._

Forgive me, Rei.


End file.
